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THE 

HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN: 

AN  APPEAL  TO  THE  CHURCH. 


BY  HdwABD'CKOSBY, 

PABTOE  OF  FOUETH-A VENUE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 
NEW  YORE. 


[UFIVBESIT71 

AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY, 

150  NASSAU-STREET,  XEW  YORK. 


0-1 


nrtji, 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  rear  1871,  by  the 
American  Teact  Society,  in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress, 
at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


ADDEESS  this  book  to  Christians ;  to 
those  who,  being  in  Christ  Jesus,  walk 
not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit. 
It  is  an  effort  to  stir  up  pure  minds  by- 
way of  remembrance. 

The  world's  way  of  making  a  good  Christian 
is  to  lead  the  Christian  into  conformity  with 
itseK  and  reduce  Christianity  to  a  matter  of 
ethics,  and  perhaps  ]3hysiology.  The  Bible  way 
is  to  separate  the  Christians  from  the  world 
unto  Christ,  according  to  the  grand  truth  that 
Christianity  is  not  a  code  or  system  for  mind 
and  body,  but  a  divine  life,  a  life  which  is 
directly  antagonistic  to  the  world's  life.  The 
church  is  lamentably  allied  to  the  world  through 
the  agencies  of  wealth  and  fashion ;  and  it  be- 
comes us  to  sound  an  alarm  for  Christ's  sake, 
and  remind  the  people  of  God  of  their  true  priv- 
ileges and  responsibilities.  Under  the  inapulses 
of  earthly  ambition  for  place  and  riches,  a  ten- 
dency has  been  developed  to  biing  down  all 


u 


PKEFACE. 


religion  to  the  low  level  of  a  respectable  nat- 
uralism, and  thus  dishonor  God's  revelation. 
Sincerity  (a  sincerity,  too,  which  scorns  all  seek- 
ing after  God)  is  considered  quite  as  good  as 
regeneration  ;  and  a  man  is  counted  a  Christian 
who  utterly  ignores  the  person,  work,  and  word 
of  Christ.  It  is  considered  a  beautiful  liberahty 
to  put  Mohammed,  Yishnu,  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  Ormuzd  on  a  par  with  Jesus,  and  to  count 
science,  reason,  poetry,  and  revelation  as  equal 
authorities.  This  is  the  prevailing  style  of  reli- 
gion that  we  find  in  the  newspapers  which  have 
to  cater  to  every  sort  of  taste,  and  which,  there- 
fore, deemed  an  undefined  olla  podrida  the  most 
suitable  form  of  religion  for  journalism.  Weak 
souls  are  snared  by  this  popular  and  human 
thing,  and  the  vox  populi  becomes  to  them  the 
vox  Dei.  The  true  voice  of  God  in  his  revealed 
word  is  first  neglected,  then  despised,  then  as- 
sailed. 

The  only  remedy  for  this  evil  is  for  each  indi- 
vidual Christian  to  renew  his  application  to  that 
word,  and,  under  its  guidance,  to  come  out  and 
be  separated  from  the  world  at  whatever  cost  of 
social  position,  political  honors,  or  pecuniary 
fortune.  We  are  to  trust  in  the  Lord  and  go 
forward,  and  we  shall  find  in  him  our  exceed- 
ing great  reward. 


CHAPTEE   I. 
The  General  View page      7 

CHAPTEE   II. 
Other  Means  of  Life - 22 

CHAPTEE   III. 
The  Soul's  Food 37 

CHAPTEE   ly. 
The  Sours  Food :  Love  for  God's  Word 53 

CHAPTEE   V. 
The  Soul's  Fresh  Air C9 

CHAPTEE  YI. 
Tl  »e  Soul's  Exercise :  in  the  Family 86 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE  VII. 

The  Soul's  Exercise  :  in  Churcli  Relations 102 

CHAPTEK   YIII. 
The  Soul's  Exercise  :  in  the  World  without 117 

CHAPTEK   IX. 

The  Soul's  Exercise  :  in  Christian  Society 131 

CHAPTEE   X. 
The  Soul's  Exercise  :  in  Personal  Culture 147 

A  Closing  Word 162 


CHAPTEE  I. 


THE     GENERAL     VIEW. 
f«  That  they  may  be  sound  in  the 

FAITH." 

'HE   old   English  word   ''sound,'' 

like   the   Greek  vytalvucLv  of   this 

passage  in  Paul's  epistle  to  Titus,  is 

equivalent  to   the  ordinary  English 

"healthy."     The   apostle  urges   his 

representative  in  Crete  to  secure  healthiness  in 

the  faith  to  the  Cretan  Christians.  Titus  1 :  13. 

As  to  the  faith  he  speaks  of,  it  is  too  often 

referred   merely  to   doctrine.     Faith  in  the 


.8  THE   HEALTHY   CHiUSTIAN. 

gospel  sense  has  two  complementary  parts; 
the  one  is  the  objective  truth  revealed  by  God 
in  his  word,  and  the  other  is  the  soul's  grasp 
of  that  truth,  the  personal  appropriation  and 
absorption  of  the  divine  doctrine.  We  have 
no  right  to  use  the  words  "the  faith"  as  mean- 
ing an  external  creed.  The  article  before  the 
word  does  not  give  us  that  right,  for  in  the 
next  chapter  to  the  one  from  which  w^e  have 
derived  our  text,  we  find  the  aged  men  are 
to  be  sound  in  the  faith,  in  tlie  charity,  and  in 
the  patience — as  the  Greek  has  it.  Now  as 
the  charity  and  the  patience  refer  to  a  condi- 
tion of  heart,  so  does  the  faith.  "We  have 
corrupted  the  w^ord  in  our  usage,  and  talk  of 
a  man's  faith,  when  we  refer  only  to  the  in- 
tellectual theses  that  he  has  chosen,  for  any 
purpose  whatever,  to  write  on  his  standard. 
We  must  correct  this  error,  when  w^e  read  the 
Bible.  Soundness  in  the  faith  does  not  mean 
orthodoxy,  but  a  healthiness  of  the  soul  in  its 
acceptance  of  the  pure  truth  of  God.  The 
subjective  side  of  the  phrase  receives  the 
greater  emphasis. 

This  healthiness  in  faith,  as  subjective,  is  a 


THE   GENERAL   VIEW.  9 

personal  matter.  It  cannot  be  affirmed  of  an 
aggregate,  a  community,  without  regard  to 
the  individuals  composing  the  community.  If 
the  faith  were  in  externals,  it  might  be  so 
affirmed.  Eites,  ceremonies,  and  emblazoned 
formularies  would  satisfy  all  the  conditions. 
A  church  composed  of  devils  might  in  this 
way  be  sound  in  the  faith.  But  a  healthy 
church  is  that  which  consists  of  healthy  Chris- 
tians. 

"What,  then,  is  a  healthy  Christian?  That 
is  the  important  question  which  we  shall  at- 
tempt to  answer  in  the  following  pages.  The 
very  word  suggests  a  comparison  of  soul  "svith 
body,  and  in  pursuing  this  comparison  we 
may,  perhaps,  best  reach  our  end. 

The  most  natural  inference  which  we  draw 
from  the  word  and  its  use  by  the  apostle  is 
that  there  are  sickly  Christians.  Christ,  the 
great  Physician,  came  to  give  health  to  these 
souls,  but  somehow  they  have  not  received 
the  boon  in  its  fulness.  The  remedies  have 
been  sufficient,  and  the  Physician  has  been 
infinitely  skilful.  The  fault,  therefore,  must 
He   in   the  patients.      Either  they  have  not 


10  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

conformed  to  tlie  prescriptions,  or  they  have 
counteracted  their  effect  by  inconsistent  addi- 
tions, or  they  have  permitted  evil  influences 
to  act  upon  them,  and  thus  thwarted  the  suffi- 
cient help  afforded  them. 

The  inference  from  the  apostle's  v>^ords  is 
fully  sustained  by  observation.  Nothing  can 
be  more  apparent  than  the  difference  between 
the  New  Testament  Christian  and  the  aver- 
age Christian  of  to-day.  If  we  draw  a  por- 
trait of  a  Christian  from  the  descriptions  fur- 
nished us  in  Scripture,  we  have  a  man  sepa- 
rated from  ilie  world,,  abjuring  its  habits  of 
life,  its  aims  and  ambitions,  its  maxims  and 
methods,  its  pomps  and  pleasures,  and  sepa- 
rated unto  Christ  /  finding  joy  unspeakable  in 
communion  with  Him,  serving  Him  in  His 
cause  of  grace,  using  opportunities  and  means 
to  do  good  after  His  pattern,  making  all  his 
alhances  and  intimacies  with  Christ's  people, 
and  living  in  the  happy  expectation  of  a  home 
with  God.  But  if  we  draw  the  portrait  of 
the  average  Christian,  we  have  a  man  who 
mg^kes  his  partnerships  and  close  relationships 
with  a  Christless  world,  assumes  the  world's 


THE    GENERAL   VIEW.  11 

style  of  living,  engages  liis  attention  and  time 
in  the  plans  and  purposes  of  this  short  hfe, 
avoids  any  separating  token  from  the  world 
lest  he  mar  his  worldly  prospects,  never  speaks 
of  Christ  except  by  a  violent  effort,  is  seen  in 
questionable  transactions,  brings  up  his  fam- 
ily for  earthly  prizes,  and  dreads  death  and 
eternity.  These  outward  differences,  that  are 
noticeable  at  a  glance,  could  be  paralleled  by 
the  differences  in  spiritual  feeUng  and  princi- 
ple. In  the  one  case  are  profound  meditation 
on  God's  revealed  truth,  a  handhng  of  the 
precious  promises,  a  cheerful  study  of  God's 
daily  providence,  a  constant  inhahng  of  heav- 
enly grace  as  of  the  odors  of  sweet  flowers 
all  along  the  road,  and  the  joyous  feeling  of 
growing  strength  in  the  way  of  Christ;  while 
on  the  other  are  cares  of  property  and  prefer- 
ment, envies  and  jealousies  towards  the  more 
successful,  conscience-struggles  against  the 
calls  of  God,  grief  or  vexation  at  earthly  dis- 
appointments, and  a  general  dissatisfaction 
and  restlessness. 

The  average   Christian  thus  described,  is 
sickly.     By  hypothesis  he  is  a  Christian,  but 


12  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

he  lias  just  enough  hfe,  in  his  soul  not  to  be 
entirely  dead.  His  spiritual  life  corresponds 
to  the  physical  life  of  a  man  in  a  fever,  and 
with  ulcers  breaking  forth  upon  his  flesh, 
racked  with  cough,  tormented  with  headache, 
or  lost,  perhaps,  in  stupor.  He  lives,  but  what 
a  life! 

It  is  a  melancholy  and  alarming  fact  that 
vast  numbers  of  Christians  are  of  this  type, 
bringing  reproach  on  the  name  they  bear,  and 
counteracting  the  blessed  invitations  of  the 
gospel  by  the  sad  specimens  of  Christianity 
they  exhibit  in  themselves. 

The  conviction  forces  itself  upon  us  that 
the  scars  of  these  inconsistencies  must  remain 
on  the  soul  for  ever.  Heaven  is  not  a  dead 
level.  Grades  mark  differences  of  character 
there,  and  the  elements  of  that  gradation  we 
may  not  anticipate.  In  mysterious  consonance 
with  heaven's  happiness  must  be  the  different 
positions  of  those  who  have  persisted  even  to 
the  last  in  frittering  away  the  gifts  of  grace 
by  shameful  dallying  with  a  false  world.  "We 
cannot  but  believe  that  the  Nethinim  fore- 
shadoT\^ed  a  class  in  heaven.      Surely  there 


THE    GENERAL  VIEW.  '         13 

are  some  Gibeonitisli  Christians  who  will  be 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  in  the 
Promised  Land.  It  will  not  do  for  these  sickly 
Christians  to  say  that  when  death  comes,  it  will 
be  all  the  same.  It  will  not  be  all  the  same. 
The  consequences  of  their  worldliness  will  go 
with  them  to  all  eternity.  How  that  will  be  is 
not  for  us  to  say,  but  the  Scripture  is  very 
plain  that  a  wilful  neglect  of  Christian  privi- 
leges meets  its  appropriate  reward.  "We  will 
not  endeavor  to  interpret  the  following  words 
of  our  Lord,  but  they  mean  something :  "  That 
servant,  which  knew  his  Lord's  wiU  and  pre- 
pared not  himself,  neither  did  according  to 
his  will,  shall  be  beaten  with  many  stripes." 

This  subject  is  one  of  the  most  important 
that  can  appeal  to  a  Christian's  mind.  It  is 
the  question  of  his  own  relation  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  and  his  work  of  grace.  It  is  the  question 
of  growth  and  evangeUzation.  It  is  the  ques- 
tion of  personal  truth  and  righteousness.  One 
grand  reason  why  the  whole  world  is  not  now 
the  Lord's  by  faith  is  the  personal  worldliness 
of  Christians.  Not  one  Christian  in  ten  testifies 
as  he  should  for  his  Master ;    not  one  in  a 


11  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

thousand  is  a  "burning  and  shining  Hght.'* 
The  whole  church,  which  ought  to  be  electric 
at  every  point,  eagh  member  surcharged  from 
the  Holy  Spirit,  has  a  feeble,  fragmentary 
efficiency,  and  shows  the  activity t)f  a  rheumatic 
patient  who  has  a  few  fingers  free.  The 
revival  of  the  church  is  the  first  question  before 
Christians  to-day.  Let  the  joy  of  Christ's 
salvation  be  understood  by  the  church,  and 
then  she  may  teach  transgressors  God's  ways, 
and  behold  sinners  converted  to  the  truth  in 
Jesus.  It  is  Christians  that  need  conversion, 
just  as  poor  Peter  did ;  and  the  longer  they 
defer  it,  the  harder  a  road  will  they  make  it. 
Oh,  what  a  sight  this  is  for  the  angels !  the 
Lord  Christ  is  crying  out  his  heavenly  wares, 
and  his  own  people  will  not  buy  them,  though 
an  open  treasury  is  theirs  to  use,  given  them 
for  this  end. 

That  we  may  minister  to  the  sick  church, 
let  us  examine  what  a  healthy  Christianity  is. 
Two  great  systems  of  efficiency  are  found  in 
the  human  body,  the  blood-system  and  the 
nerve-system.  The  heart  is  the  reservoir  of 
the  former  and  the  brain  of  the  latter.  Through 


THE   GENERAL  VIEW.  lo 

the  blood  the  food  is  assimilated  to  the  body, 
and  thus  the  body  is  constantly  preserved  and 
mamtains  its  integrity.  The  food  supplies  the 
blood,  and  the  air  we  inhale  is  a  constant 
purifier  of  tte  blood  so  supphed.  On  this 
blood-system  depends  all  else  in  the  body,  so 
that  the  Scripture  statement  has  a  literal 
force :  "  The  hfe  of  the  flesh  is  in  the  blood." 
Lev.  17 :  11.  By  a  marvellous  network  of 
aiteries,  capillaries  and  veins  the  blood  is 
circulated  through  every  portion  of  the  human 
frame,  and  is  perpetually  engaged  in  its  work 
of  repairing  the  body's  waste  and  fostering  its 
growth.  If  the  blood  lose  in  quantity  or 
quahty,  or  if  the  circulation  be  impeded,  the 
body  at  once  fails,  weakness  and  disease 
invade  it,  and  the  life  is  so  far  marred.  Hence 
the  main  effort  of  the  physician  is  to  restore 
the  efficiency  of  the  blood,  and  when  this  is 
estabhshed,  the  "vis  medicina  naturae" — 
nature's  restorative  energy — accomplishes  the 
cure.  The  poison  of  the  viper  does  not  affect 
the  body  until  it  is  taken  into  the  blood,  and 
conversely  the  purification  of  the  blood  is  the 
healing  of  the  man. 


IG  THE    HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

Now  if  we 'regard  the  spiritual  man,  we  find 
an  analogue  to  the  blood-system  of  the  body 
in  Christ  himself.  Christ  is  our  life,  just  as  in 
the  body  "the  life  is  in  the  blood."  It  is  as 
Christ  permeates  the  soul  in  its*every  depart- 
ment and  function  that  the  Christian  meets 
the  requirements  of  his  new  nature.  His 
personal  contact  with  the  soul  builds  it  up  and 
prevents  its  decay,  supplying  its  ever-recurring 
wants.  He  is  "mad-e  unto  us  wisdom  and 
righteousness  and  sanctification,"  as  well  as 
redemption;  just  as,  in  the  body,  bone  and 
sinew  and  cartilage  are  derived  from  the 
blood,  the  whole  man  being  built  up  from  this 
source.  There  is  no  part  of  the  spiritual*  man 
for  which  Christ  is  not  the  sufficient  supply. 
What  are  called  the  graces  of  the  Spirit  are 
but  the  applications  of  Christ.  The  reason  of 
their  name  "fruit  of  the  Spirit"  (Gal.  5:22 
and  Eph.  5  : 9,)  we  shall  consider  hereafter. 
What  is  our  spiritual  joy  but  the  result  of  the 
consciousness  of  Christ's  saving  presence? 
What  is  our  spiritual  patience  but  the  rest 
and  contentment  which  spring  from  the  same 
source  ?     What  is  our  Christian  love  but  the 


THE   GENERAL  VIEW.  17 

toucli  of  Christ's  love  reacting  in  us  ?  See  in 
what  a  comprehensive  way  the  cross  of  death 
furnished  us  with  Hf e  \  Understand  how  Christ 
is  "all  and  in  all!"  Behold  how  without 
Christ  spiritual  life  is  impossible !  A  soul 
without  Christ  is  as  a  body  mthout  blood.  It 
is  a  dead  soul,  however  you  may  give  it  the 
semblance  of  life  by  art.  The  Christless  soul 
is  as  truly  destitute  of  spiritual  life  as  the 
beast  is  destitute  of  rational  life,  and  the  vege- 
table is  destitute  of  animal  life.  The  vegetable 
lives,  but  it  lives  on  a  lower  plane  than  the 
beast ;  the  beast  lives,  but  it  lives  on  a  lower 
plane  than  the  man;  the  man  lives,  but  he 
lives  on  a  lower  plane  than  the  samt.  So 
when  we  say  that  a  soul  not  sainted  by  Christ's 
presence  is  dead,  we  do  not  say  it  has  no  kind 
of  life,  but  that  it  has  no  spiritual  life — no 
particle  of  that  highest  hfe  for  which  God 
designed  it.  In  this  true  and  sublime  view,  it 
is  dead.  The  spiritual  life  consists  in  Christ 
everywhere  active  in  the  soul,  as  the  blood  is 
in  the  body.  Of  course  this  cannot  be  a 
Christ  speculative,  or  a  Christ  sentimental.  Nei- 
ther speculation  nor  sentiment  is  a  spring  of 

Kea'.thy  Cliristlan.  2 


18  THE    HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

life.  Nor  can  it  be  a  human  Christ,  who  shall 
cause  a  divine  life  in  the  soul.  It  is  not  an 
exemplarij  Christ  or  a  sympatliizing  Christ,  but 
an  indwelling,  energizing  Christ,  who  must 
form  the  very  blood  of  the  soul,  his  example 
and  his  sympathy  being  real  but  secondary  to 
his  essential  union  with  us.  It  is  in  this  way 
the  Christian  says,  "1  live,  and  yet  not  I,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me."  Gal.  2  :20.  So  we  can 
understand  the  wonderful  words  of  the  prayer 
of  Jesus,  "As  thou.  Father,  art  in  me  and  I 
in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us."  "I 
in  them  and  thou  in  me."  "That  the  love 
wherewith  thou  hast  loved  me  may  be  in 
them  and  I  in  them."  John  17:21,  23,  26. 
What  is  it  that  fills  the  Christian  heart  with 
peace  and  causes  it  to  rejoice  in  the  fulness 
of  a  heavenly  hope  ?  Is  it  its  holiness  ?  Is  it 
the  record  of  the  earth-Hfe  ?  Is  it  even  God's 
mercy  and  love  ?  Is  not  "  Christ  in  ns  the 
hope  of  glory"  ?  Is  not  Christ  dwelling  in  the 
soul  and  moving  it  in  its  life,  as  the  blood 
dwells  and  moves  in  the  veins,  the  cause  and 
pledge  of  our  glory,  the  true  basis  of  our  joy 
and  hope  ? 


THE    GENEBAL  VIEW.  19 

It  is  this  which  sej^arates  true  Christianity 
from  all  religions  of  mere  creed  and  law,  as 
far  as  the  heaven  is  separated  from  the  earth. 
The  Christian,  to  whom  duty  is  the  idea  of 
rehgion,  has  not  begun  to  understand  the 
principle  of  his  spmtual  life.  Duty  has  no 
part  in  the  Christian  scheme  except  as  it  pro- 
ceeds from  the  Christ-life  of  the  soul.  In  any 
other  light  it  is  self-righteousness  and  heathen- 
ism. Hence  the  cry  of  God  to  the  soul  is  not 
"  Do,"  but "  Believe ;"  and  this  leads  to  another 
branch  of  thought. 

The  blood  is  formed  in  the  body  from  the 
food  eaten.  So  Christ  is  formed  in  us  from 
the  Holy  word  accepted  by  faith.  Faith  is 
thus  the  mouth  of  the  soul,  in  accordance  with 
that  exhortation  of  the  Lord,  "  Open  thy  mouth 
wide  and  I  will  fill  it."  Ps.  81:10.  We 
receive  Jesus  through  the  word.  He  that 
feeds  on  God's  word  has  Christ  formed  in  him. 
The  written  word  introduces  the  personal 
Word.  And  as  the  body  cannot  eat  once  for 
all,  but  must  eat  daily,  so  God's  word  must  be 
daily  used  in  order  that  the  Christ-life  be  sus- 
tained in  our  souls.     The  disuse  of  the  word 


23  THE    HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

is  a  starvation  process  for  the  Christian.  The 
first  Psalm  describes  the  blessed  man  as  one 
meditating  day  and  night  in  God's  revealed 
truth ;  and  the  119th  Psalm  is  a  varied  reite- 
ration of  the  paramount  importance  of  a 
constant  feasting  upon  the  same  holy  word. 
It  is  by  reason  of  the  waste  and  losses  of  the 
body  that  the  blood  must  be  ever  renewed  by 
food,  and  it  is  by  reason  of  the  waste  of  the 
soul,  its  frailty  and  v/eakness  through  sin,  that 
Christ  must  be  ever  supplied  anew  to  it  by  the 
aliment  of  the  word.  From  these  considera- 
tions we  may  see  the  relation  of  the  Bible  to 
the  Christian.  It  is  a  vital  relation.  His 
intelligence  is  in  question  only  in  a  subordinate 
way.  His  heart,  his  life,  his  inner  being  of 
will  and  motive  and  affection  are  directly  inter- 
ested. The  intellectual  elements  of  the  Bible 
are  only  valuable  as,  by  enlightening  the  mind, 
they  open  the  heart.  The  Bible  is  life-giving 
only  as  Christ  is  in  it,  and  the  reading  of  the 
Bible  is  life-receiving  only  as  Christ  is  ac- 
cepted in  it.  It  is  faith  that  alone  makes  this 
appropriation.  It  is  the  trust  of  a  child 
listening  to  its  father's  voice,  and  by  a  natural 


THE    GENEKAL   VIEW.  21 

instinct  storing  its  treasures  of  trntii  in  the 
chambers  of  the  soul.  It  is  a  process  of  the 
tenderest  and  truest  affections.  The  soul  has 
passed  beyond  the  region  of  doubts  and  criti- 
cism when  it  has  thus  learned  to  feed  on  the 
word.  It  has  tasted  the  heavenly  manna  and 
knows  its  freshness  and  sweetness. 

A  dark  thought  has  to  be  inserted  here.  It 
is  possible  for  the  Christian,  by  yielding  to 
worldly  influences,  to  lose  his  relish  for  this 
celestial  food.  "  Our  soul  loatheth  this  light 
bread  "  was  said  of  provision  from  God's  own 
table.  There  is  no  better  test  of  a  healthy 
piety  than  an  appetite  for  the  Bible.  It  shows 
the  soul's  fondness  for  Christ  and  its  longing 
to  sustain  the  constant*  experience  of  Christ 
within.  It  shows  that  it  knows  the  way  to  do 
this,  and  makes  a  habit  of  its  privilege.  The 
Bible  study  of  faith  is  the  making  blood  for 
the  soul,  the  supply  of  Clirist's  efficiency  to 
the  spiritual  life. 


CHAPTEE   II. 

THE     GENERAL     YIE\Ar — OTHER 
MEANS     OF     LIFE. 

'ONSIDEE  next  some  other  fea- 
tures in  the  analogy  between 
physical  and  spiritual  Hfe. 
In  the  body  the  blood  is  kept  pure 
by  the  respiratory  organs,  suppljdng 
fresh  oxygen  with  every  breath.  Without  this 
the  avenues  of  life  would  be  clogged  and  the 
food  would  prove  a  minister  of  evil  and  death. 
Now  it  is  remarkable  how  constantly  the 
teachings  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  urge  Chris- 
tians to  association.  They  are  not  to  forsake 
the  assembling  of  themselves  together;  the 
very  nam-e  of  church  {iKKkriaia)  denotes  an 
assembly.  A  special  blessing  is  given  to  the 
gathering  together  of  Christians  to  pray ;  they 
are  to  meet  together  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week ;  they  are  spoken  of  as  a  comjoaiiy;  they 


OTHER   MEANS  OF   LIFE.  23 

are  to  refresh  and  comfort  one  another ;  m 
short,  the  whole  New  Testament  views  the 
Church  of  Christ  as  a  band  of  brethren  gath- 
ered together  and  separated  from  the  world. 
This  Christian  communion  acts  to  the  indi- 
vidual Christian  as  the  fresh  air  acts  upon  the 
body.  It  is  by  this  that  the  faith  of  the  soul 
is  preserved  from  becoming  false  or  fantastic, 
and  the  graces  are  maintained  in  truth. 

Isolation  begets  selfishness,  and  selfishness 
is  the  bane  of  faith.  The  truth  of  God  in  us 
needs  a  perpetual  contact  with  that  truth  in 
others  in  order  to  preserve  its  purity.  The 
plant  shut  out  from  light  and  air  withers  or 
has  a  sickly  growth ;  and  the  Christianity  that 
foregoes  the  communion  of  the  saints  loses  its 
tone  and  is  a  prey  to  spiritual  fungi.  We 
cannot  find  high  types  of  Christian  life  either 
in  the  hermit's  cell  or  in  the  haunts  of  fashion. 
The  Christianity  found  in  either  lacks  oxygen. 
It  has  not  breathed  a  healthy  atmosphere. 
Asphyxia  is  threatened  in  each  case :  in  the 
one  case  by  breathing,  or  trying  to  breathe,  in 
a  vacuum,  and  in  the  other  by  breathing  in  an 
impure  air.     The  same  divine  physician  who 


24  THE    HEALTHY    CHllISTIAN. 

has  prescribed  for  us  the  food  of  the  word, 
has  also  prescribed  a  Christian  communion  as 
a  regulator  of  that  word's  effects  in  the  heart. 
The  blood  is  indebted  not  only  to  the  food 
but  to  the  air  we  breathe ;  and  our  possession 
of  Christ  in  us  is  dependent  not  only  on  Ihe 
truth  we  accept,  but  on  the  company  we  keep. 
A  clear  conviction  and  childlike  faith,  with  the 
elasticity  and  vigorous  glow  belonging  to  then), 
may  be  f  oUowed  by  a  sad  experience  of  doubts 
and  fears,  of  sloth  and  stupidity,  of  wayward-1 
ness  and  v/andering,  all  ])y  reason  of  the  false 
associations  permitted  by  the  converted  heart. 
The  sources  of  truth  are  kept  open  to  the  soul, 
but  they  are  counteracted  in  their  efficacy  by 
the  constraints  of  evil  associations.  "I  read 
my  Bible  and  I  pray,"  say  many,  "but  I 
obtain  no  rehef."  The  trouble  is  not  in 
the  food,  but  the  air.  The  social  intimacies  of 
the  world  nullify  all  that  the  Bible  and  prayer 
might  do.  No  food  will  keep  a  man  healthy 
in  a  fetid  cellar  or  amid  the  fumes  of  a  match- 
factory.  The  cry  to  a  believer  should  be  as 
much  "  Look  to  your  lungs"  as  "Look  to  your 
stomach."     Cultivate  ?.  Christian  society,  as 


OTHER   MEANS   OF  LIFE.  25 

-well  as  study  prayerfully  God's  word,  if  you 
would  have  Christ  in  you  as  the  blood  of  your 
soul  in  a  pure  and  unimpeded  current. 

But  there  is  still  another  important  consid- 
eration. We  are  wont,  and  rightly,  to  couple 
exercise  with  air,  when  we  prescribe  for  debili- 
tated bodies.  We  know  the  breatliing  itself  is 
performed  better  when  the  body  is  properly 
excited  by  motion  ;  that  the  lungs  play  to  their 
full  extent,  and  every  comer  of  their  functionary 
surface  is  brought  into  use.  We  know,  too, 
that  by  exercise,  desirable  mechanical  as  well 
as  chemical  changes  are  superinduced  in  the 
system,  the  body  throwing  off  its  incumbrances, 
while  its  tissues  are  strengthened  by  a  more 
equal  distribution  of  its  humors.  So  the  soul 
needs  its  exercise.  It  must  put  forth  its  activ- 
ities in  its  social  opportunities.  The  social 
benefits  will  be  rightly  received  and  their 
virtues  enhanced  by  this.  A  Christian  must 
not  be  a  passive  recipient  among  his  fellows, 
but  he  must  improve  his  recipiency  by  activity. 
It  is  as  we  exercise  our  graces  that  they  grow 
Christian  society  furnishes  us  with  a  pure  air 
to  breathe,  but  we  must  be  stirring  amid  it,  if 


26  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

we  would  gain  all  its  advantages  in  ourselves. 
We  must  drink  it  into  the  lungs  of  our  spiritual 
man  by  cheery  exercise.  Christian  work  ought 
to  be  no  more  irksome  than  the  activity  of  a 
healthy  body  on  a  crisp  autumn  morning.  By 
Christian  work  we  mean  any  use  of  the  graces 
God  has  given  us.  The  sympathies,  the 
encouragements,  the  helps,  the  instructions, 
which  we  may  bestow  on  others ;  the  self- 
restraint,  the  love,  the  patience,  the  forbear- 
ance, which  we  may  cultivate  in  ourselves ; 
the  faith,  obedience,  hope,  and  filial  affection, 
which  we  may  foster  toward  God — all  classify 
themselves  under  the  head  of  Christian  work, 
that  active  exercise  by  which  we  make  the 
most  of  Christian  society,  and  render  it  fully 
the  accompaniment  of  the  spnitual  food  which 
the  word  furnishes  to  the  soul. 

This  sketch  of  the  soul's  blood-system  may 
suffice  for  our  purpose.  A  few  words  respect- 
ing the  soul's  nerve-system  follow.  The  nerves 
of  the  body  give  sensation  to  every  part,  and 
thus  arouse  responsive  action  to  every  touch 
from  without.  They  are,  besides,  the  con- 
necting link  between  body  and  mind,  running 


OTHER   MEANS   OF   LIFE.  27 

in  this  way  into  a  region  where  we  cannot 
trace  them.  A  pecuhar  mystery  belongs  to 
them  in  this  their  relation  to  the  higher  being. 
In  both  these  relations  the  nerves  are  the 
watchful  superintendents  of  the  whole  frame. 
The  blood-system  could  not  exist  a  moment 
without  the  nerve-system.  It  w^ould  forget  to 
perform  its  functions  if  the  nerves  did  not  ever 
give  their  ready  signals.  It  is  through  the 
nerves,  too,  the  senses  act.  Sight  and  hearing, 
smelling  and  taste  would  not  be,  but  for  nerves 
which  make  them  possible  and  efficient. 

All  our  discriminations  in  the  material  world 
are  made  through  the  nerves.  We  know  the 
difference  between  the  sweet  odor  of  the  rose 
and  the  foul  fumes  of  mephitic  vapor — between 
the  fair,  sunny  landscape,  wdth  stream  and 
mountain,  and  the  dingy  aspect  of  a  smoky 
factory-town  in  a  rain-storm ;  between  the 
delicious  flavor  of  a  peach  and  the  bitter  taste 
of  wormwood — only  by  the  action  of  our  nerves. 

Now,  if  we  turn  to  the  spiritual  man,  we  find 
an  element  of  the  spiritual  hfe  which  exactly 
answers  to  the  nerve-system.  It  w^atches  over 
the  whole  life.     It  makes  it  sensitive  to  the 


28     *      THE    HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

impact  of  the  spiritual  world  without ;  it  sug- 
gests the  soul's  responsive  activity ;  it  connects 
the  soul  with  the  mysterious  infinite  by  bonds 
that  transcend  description  and  definition,  and 
it  gives  the  spiritual  man  his  powders  of  dis- 
cernment between  good  and  evil.  This  is  the 
Spirit  of  God  in  the  conscience  and  conscious- 
ness ;  (the  Greeks  had  one  word,  cvvEidvoLg,  for 
both.)  The  Spirit  of  God  is  resident  in  the 
believer;  hence  he  is  called  the  temple  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  1  Cor.  6-19  ;  2  Cor.  6-16.  It  is 
from  this  source  come  the  spiritual  perceptions 
and  discriminations  of  the  regenerated  soul. 
Look  at  Paul's  remarkable  language  :  "  God 
hath  revealed  [these  mysteries]  unto  us  by 
his  Spirit ;  for  the  Spirit  searcheth  all  things, 
yea,  the  deep  things  of  God.  For  what  man 
knoweth  the  things  of  a  man,  save  the  spirit 
of  man  which  is  in  him  ?  Even  so  the  things 
of  God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the  Spirit  of 
God.  Now  we  have  received,  not  the  spirit  of 
the  world,  but  the  Spirit  which  is  of  God,  that 
we  might  know  the  things  w^hich  are  freely 

given  us  of   God But  the  natural 

man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of 


OTHER   MEANS  OF   LIFE.  29 

God,  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him  ;  neither 
can  he  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned.  But  he  that  is  spiritual  judgeth 
all  things,  yet  he  himself  is  judged  of  no  man. 
For  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord, 
that  he  may  instruct  him  ?  But  we  have  the 
mind  of  Christ."  1  Cor.  2:10-16.  This 
indwelling  of  God  the  Spirit  in  the  believer's 
soul  is  too  often  explained  away  as  figurative, 
because  incomprehensible.  The  presence  of 
our  own  souls  within  our  bodies  is  incompre- 
hensible ;  how  can  we  expect  to  comprehend 
the  indwelling  of  the  Divine  Spirit?  But  the 
incomprehensible  is  true  and  demands  our 
faith,  and  the  recognition  of  God  within  us 
is  the  grandest  secret  of  Christian  growth. 
"Know  ye  not  your  own  selves,"  says  the 
Apostle,  "how  that  Jesus  Christ  is  in  you?" 
2  Cor.  13  : 5.  And  so  the  Spirit  is  affirmed  to 
dwell  equally  within  us.  "  If  any  man  have 
not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,"  (called  the  Spirit  of 
God  immediately  before,)  "he  is  none  of 
His  ;  and  if  Christ  be  in  you,  the  body  is  dead 
because  of  sin,  but  the  spirit  is  life  because  of 
righteousness.     But  if  the  Spirit  of  him  t] 


'li4t 


30  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead  dwell  in  jou, 
he  that  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead  shall 
also  quicken  your  mortal  bodies  by  his  Spirit 
that  dwelleth  in  you."  Eom.  8 : 9-11.  Here  the 
Spirit  is  called  both  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  and  has  a  veritable  indwelling 
in  the  human  body  and  soul  as  the  soul's  true 
life,  and  yet  is  distinct  from  Christ  dwelling 
in  us.  We  may  talk  of  it  as  an  influence 
or  an  emotion  or  a  tendency ;  but  it  is  more 
than  those.  It  is  one  who  can  bear  witness 
with  our  spirit,  (ver.  16,)  help  our  infirmities 
and  make  intercession  for  us,  (ver.  26,)  and 
that  is  what  an  influence  or  emotion  or  ten- 
dency could  not  do.  No !  let  us  meet  the 
stupendous  fact  fully.  It  is  truly  God  in  us. 
As  we  have  said,  the  Holy  Spirit  in  us  is  the 
nerve-system  of  the  spiritual  life.  It  is  he 
who  watches  and  witnesses  within  us,  and  by 
his  holy  influences  keeps  the  truth  in  us  pure 
and  energetic.  It  is  he  who  who  gives  that 
wisdom  of  perception  by  which  the  Christian 
soul  knows  the  truth  from  a  lie,  and  almost 
instinctively  separates  the  good  from  the  evil. 
It  is  he  who  checks  and  corrects,  warns  and 


OTHEK   MEANS   OF   LIFE.  31 

exhorts,  encourages  and  sootlies  the  soul  in  its 
various  exercises  and  experiences.  Christ  is 
in  us  as  the  source  of  growth  and  the  niain- 
tainer  of  hfe,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  is  in  us  as 
the  communicator  of  the  hfe-principle,  the 
furnisher  of  spiritual  sensation  and  its  discrimi- 
nating power.  In  point  of  time  there  is  no 
priority  in  the  reception  of  Christ  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  hj  the  soul,  but  in  logic  there  is. 
It  is  the  "Holy  Spirit  who  regenerates,  who 
quickens  the  dead  soul  to  a  new  birth,  and 
thus  enables  it  to  accept  Christ  and  all  his 
efficiency.  Born  of  the  Spirit,  the  new-bom 
soul  feeds  on  the  sincere  milk  of  the  v/ord  and 
thus  Christ  is  developed  within.  The  whole 
is  one  work  of  God  with  the  soul,  but  our 
finite  minds  are  obliged  to  analyze  and  look 
at  it  in  parts. 

The  nerve- system  of  the  body  is  preserved 
in  health  by  the  same  means  which  preserve 
the  blood-system.  If  the  blood  is  kept  pure 
and  vigorous,  the  nerves,  like  the  sinew*s  and  the 
muscles,  will  be  kept  in  healthy  exercise.  So 
in  the  Christian  soul,  it  is  Christ  in  us,  in  his 
ruth  and  fulness,  through  a   constant  com- 


32  THE    HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

munion  with  the  word  and  with  Christ's  own 
redeemed  ones,  that  will  ever  preserve  our 
conscience  from  numbness  and  our  judgment 
from  error.  So  our  active  conscience  and 
correct  judgment  will  react  upon  us  in  making 
Christ  more  clear  and  satisfactory  to  the  soul 
The  two  systems  act  and  react  upon  one 
another.  There  is  blood  in  the  brain  and 
there  are  nerves  in  the  heart.  No  human 
mind  can  draw  the  line  between  the  work  of 
Jesus  and  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  the  con- 
verted soul.  The  interlacings  and  implications 
of  both  amoDg  motives,  perceptions,  affections 
and  will  are  a  mystery  and  must  be  a  mystery. 
But  we  may  make  the  general  analysis,  that 
we  have  made,  in  considering  Jesus  Christ  as 
forming  the  life-blood  of  the  soul  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  forming  the  nerve-power  of  the 
same,  in  its  new  condition  as  begotten  of  God 
and  endowed  with  a  new  nature.  We  may,  in 
general,  place  Christ  in  the  region  of  the 
affections  and  will,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
region  of  the  conscience  and  judgment,  and 
yet  we  know  well  that  this  is  but  a  crude 
approximation  to  the  tnith. 


OTHER   MEANS  OF   LIFE.  33 

A  sound  faith  (or  a  healthy  faith)  is,  then,  a 
free  and  regular  action  of  these  divine  elements 
in  us,  a  "  fulness  of  God,"  in  accordance  with 
that  prayer  of  Paul  regarding  the  Ephesians : 
"that  he  would  grant  you,  according  to  the 
riches  of  his  glory,  to  be  strengthened  with 
might  by  his  Spirit  in  the  inner  man,  that 
Christ  may  dwell  in   your  hearts   by  faith 

that  ye  might  be  filled  with  all  the 

fulness  of  God."  A  soimd  faith  is  a  faith 
which  makes  Christ,  the  life  of  the  soul,  to  be 
felt  in  every  fibre  of  our  being,  giving  a  glow 
to  all  and  conforming  all  to  itself;  and  in 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  is  ever  the  inspirer  and 
guide  of  this  soul-life.  A  sound  faith  is  thus 
eminently  a  divine  thing.  It  has  no  earthly 
contents  or  earthly  support.  It  anticipates 
the  heavenly  citizenship  and  lives  here  an 
exotic,  a  stranger  and  foreigner.  It  is  no 
product  of  philosophies  or  societies  or  poetry. 
Nor  can  it  be  gauged  by  men's  natural  judg- 
ments, however  refined  and  educated  they 
may  be.  Men  (unconverted  and  unregenerate 
men)  cannot,  therefore,  prescribe  for  a  faith, 
that  it  may  become  sound.     They  are  con- 

Healthy  Chrlettan.  3 


84  THE   HEALTHY   CHEISTIAN. 

stantly  attempting  it,  but  none  of  tlieir 
nostrums  ever  reach  the  seat  of  the  disease. 
Nor  can  men  without  effort  expect  to  gain  a 
sound  or  healthy  faith.  "  Giving  all  diligence  " 
is  the  apostolic  precept.  (2  Pet.  1 : 5.)  Unless 
watched  and  nurtured,  the  soul's  health  decays. 
Everything  around  us  tends  to  injure  the 
plants  pf  grace.  Just  as  a  dihgent  study  of 
God's  word  and  a  dihgent  companionship  with 
sincere  Christians  are  necessary  to  the  purity 
and  fulness  of  the  Christ-life  within,  so  a 
dihgent  prayer-communion  with  God  is  the 
essential  condition  of  the  spirit-life  in  us. 
There  is  an  analogy  here  with  the  nerve-life 
of  the  body  and  its  mysterious  connections 
with  magnetism,  electricity,  and  other  impon- 
derable agents.  Prayer  takes  this  mysterious 
and  powerful  place  in  the  soul's  hfe,  and 
diligence  in  prayer  must  accompany  diligence 
in  the  word  and  Christian  intercourse  if  we 
would  have  the  whole  spuitual  man  healthy 
and  strong.  Christ  and  the  Holy  Ghost  are 
both  indwellers  of  the  behever ;  the  entire 
spiritual  life  is  in  their  presence  and  work. 
The  word   and  communion  with  the   saints 


OTHER   MEANS   OF   LIFE.  35 

nourish  the  Christ  -  experience,  while  prayer 
nourishes  the  Spirit-experience,  and  yet  both 
are  really  one.  As  we  have  before  seen,  the 
two  streams  are  for  ever  intermingling.  One 
cannot  take  this  Bible  view  of  salvation  and 
renewal  without  seeing  that  no  natural  growth 
could  ever  develop  a  Christian  or  a  saint. 
There  must  be  a  new  birth  or  a  new  begetting 
of  God.  And  not  only  must  the  unconverted 
soul  be  made  to  realize  this  foimdation  fact, 
but  the  believer  must  ever  renew  its  freshness 
in  him,  so  that  he  may  be  saved  sad  legalistic 
and  self-righteous  mistakes  in  attempting  to 
increase  in  holiness.  Your  growth,  my  Chris- 
tian brother,  is  from  within,  not  from  without. 
It  is  only  through  God  in  you  that  you  can 
grow.  There  is  the  root  and  sap  of  your 
spiritual  liffe.  Laws  and  rules  and  churches 
and  ordinances  have  notliing  to  do  with  it, 
except  as  they  are  the  products  of  it.  A  due 
thought  of  this  will  send  you  for  a  renewal  of 
soundness  and  health,  not  to  any  form  of 
external  duty,  but  to  your  Bible  and  your 
knees.  You  will  keep  your  heart  with  all 
diligence,  as  appreciating  the  truth  that  out  of 


36  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

it  are  the  issues  of  life.  You  will  be  jealous 
over  it  with  a  godly  jealousy,  and  remember 
that  it  belongs  to  God.  You  will  be  to  the 
world — that  distinctive  thing  which  belongs 
only  to  Satan — as  one  dead,  and  your  hfe  will 
be  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

If  you  were  sound  in  faith,  healthy  in  your 
piety,  what  an  impassable  guK  would  he 
between  you  and  the  Christless  world!  for 
God  dwelleth  in  you ! 


CHAPTEE  III. 


THE     SOUL'S     FOOD, 


HY    LAW    DO     T      LOYE."        Ps.     II9  :  163. 

^N  the  former  chapters  we  have 
followed  the  analogy  of  the  bodily 
life  and  spiritual  life  as  suggested  by 
Scripture,  and  have  noted  that  as  the 
blood-system  and  nerve-system  mutu- 
ally sustain  one  another,  and  the  two  form  the 
sources  of  physical  life,  so  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  the  Holy  Spmt  in  mysterious  con- 
junction form  the  hfe  eternal  of  the  soul ;  and 
we  have  also  noted  that  as  the  blood  and 
nerve-fluid  are  furnished  to  the  body  through 
the  food,  so  the  indwelhng  of  Christ  and  the 
Spirit  is  through  the  word  of  God ;  and,  more- 
over, that  as  the  blood  and  nerve-fluid  thus 


38  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

originating  are  maintained  in  purity  by  means 
of  the  breath,  exercise,  and  nervous  influences, 
so  the  indwelling  of  Christ  and  -the  Spirit  is 
made  efiicient  by  Christian  communion,  activ- 
ity, and  prayer.  "We  have  thus  all  the  data 
from  which  to  examine  in  detail  the  conditions 
of  a  healthy  piety. 

1.  Our  first  consideration  will  concern  the 
relation  of  the  Christian  to  the  ivritten  word  of 
God,  I  use  the  word  "written"  advisedly,  for 
to  some  minds  it  may  appear  arbitrary  to 
bind  a  man's  salvation  to  a  book,  which  might 
be  lost  or  put  out  of  reach  or  become  cor- 
rupted. Indeed,  this  is  a  very  f avorit©  objection 
to  Christianity  on  the  part  of  a  large  class  of 
philosophers.  They  plead  against  it  its  injus- 
tice and  partiahty,  as  it  makes  salvation  easier 
to  some  than  to  others ;  perhaps,  indeed, 
impossible  to  many.  No  doubt  there  are  sin- 
cere minds  that  struggle  with  this  perplexity, 
and  are  inclined  to  feel  that  a  revelation  that 
is  to  all  alike  is  the  only  revelation  which  they 
can  accept,  and  that  hence  a  written  revelation 
they  must  reject.  There  is  an  apparent  force 
in  this  argument,   but  yet   a  few  moments' 


THE   SOUL'S   FOOD.  39 

thouglit  will  destroy  it ;  for,  in  the  first  place, 
a  revelation  comes  with  its  own  proofs.  Hav- 
ing thus  proved  itself,  no  outside  considerations 
can  invalidate  it.  Christianity  is  a  revelation 
proved  by  its  own  inherent  perfections  and  by 
the  overwhelming  evidences  of  the  miraculous 
works  attending  its  proclamation.  From  Gen- 
esis to  Eevelation,  from  Adam  to  John,  its 
light  shines  in  unmixed  brilliancy,  (for  it  is 
alike  Christianity  before  and  after  the  earthly 
life  of  Christ.)  The  divinity  of  the  record  is 
as  clear  to  the  unprejudiced  mind  as  the  celes- 
tial origin  of  the  midday  sun.  God's  grace 
raising  man  from  sin  to  hohness  through  the 
sufferings  of  the  God-man  is  a  doctrine  of 
grandeur  and  perfection  that  no  human  mind 
could  ever  have  conceived ;  and  all  the  accord- 
ant teachings  of  purity  in  the  heart,  love  to 
God  and  man  and  renunciation  of  self,  are 
both  incomprehensible  and  repugnant  to  the 
natural  man.  Besides  this  heavenly  aspect 
of  the  word,  wo  have  the  es:ternal  wonders 
wrought  in  its  confirmation  by  Moses,  Elijah 
and  EHsha,  and  Christ  and  his  apostles,  doue 
in  no   corner,   but   performed  openly  before 


40  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

nations,  and  deeply  and  permanently  inscribed 
on  the  common  memories  and  traditions  of 
the  race,  as  well  as  minutely  recorded  on  the 
sacred  pages.  These  testimonies  do  not  wax 
weak  through  age,  as  some  would  falsely  and 
craftily  argue.  Is  a  father's  testimony  to  his 
early  home  any  the  less  strong  because  the 
child  has  never  seen  that  home,  and  never 
saw  his  father's  childhood?  "When  that  child 
is  himself  a  grandfather,  is  his  testimony  to 
his  father's  home  any  weaker  to  Ms  grand- 
children ?  It  is  a  false  formula  that  evidence 
grows  weak  by  age.  The  character  of  the 
bearers,  and  not  the  time  through  which  they 
bear  it,  can  alone  invalidate  evidence.  The 
miracles  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles  are  just  as 
potent  testimonies  to-day  as  they  were  when 
they  were  performed.  Nobody  can  impeach 
the  witnesses.  The  fulness  of  historic  hght 
shines  on  them,  and  they  stand  out  as  con- 
spicuously as  the  Alps  in  the  sunshine.  False 
miracles  and  fabulous  legends  cannot  bear 
investigation,  but  the  miracles  of  Christ  and 
the  apostles  court  and  rejoice  in  the  most 
searching  scrutiny.     The  more  you  compare 


THE   SOUL'S   FOOD.  41 

tlie  diamond  and  its  imitation,  tlie  better  for 
the  diamond.  He  is  ft  fool  who,  because  of 
the  imitation,  flings  all  away  and  denies  the 
diamond. 

The  written  revelation  coming  thus  to  us 
with  its  attendant  testimony  within  and  with- 
out, it  is  the  part  of  common  sense  to  meet 
theoretical  objections  with  contempt.  When 
once  a  truth  is  established,  we  can  occupy  it 
as  an  impregnable  fortress.  This  is  the  course 
of  every  right  mind  with  the  Scriptures.  Hav- 
ing received  their  own  abundant  testimony,  it 
consents  to  leave  outside  problems  unsolved 
rather  than  stultify  itself  by  denying  the  true 
Scripture  for  their  solution. 

But,  secondly,  the  difficulty  about  the  injus- 
tice of  a  -wTitten  revelation  may  itself  not 
appear  so  great,  if  we  remember  that  the  writ- 
ten word  does  not  deny  the  spoken  word,  but 
is  its  preservation.  The  spoken  word  to  Adam 
and  Noah  was  to  the  whole  race,  and  it  is  not 
for  us  to  say  how  much  of  that  spoken  word 
has  remained  in  tradition  or  thought  or  mental 
structure  in  the  various  nations  of  the  earth. 
But  to  us  the  toritten  word  is  the  word,  and 


42  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

hence  we  emphasize  the  adjective,  and  protest 
against  any  naturahsnf  that  would  make  all 
alike  by  destroying  the  Bible.  "  God  in  na- 
ture" is  a  favorite  expression  with  souls  that 
hate  to  think  of  sin  and  punishment,  of  peni- 
tence and  pardon,  of  grace  and  gratitude.  But 
"  God  in  nature "  is  no  comfort  or  help  to  the 
helpless  spirit.  The  whirlwind,  the  earth- 
quake, the  storm,  the  overwhelming  waves,  the 
monsters  of  the  sea  and  forest,  the  volcanic 
fires,  the  consuming  thunderbolt,  the  desolating 
pestilence,  the  tortures  of  disease — these  are 
some  of  the  sweet  comforts  to  the  needy  and 
sinking  soul  that  "God  in  nature"  presents. 
"What  right  has  the  natural  religionist  to  call 
out  from  nature  some  of  its  fair  scenes  and 
construct  a  revelation  and  a  creed  from  this 
fragmentary  eclecticism  ?  If  God  is  in  nature 
as  our  instructor,  he  is  instructor  in  all  nature 
and  not  in  part.  If  God's  revelation  to  the 
help-seejdng  soul  is  through  the  workings  of 
the  physical  system — the  material  creation — 
then  common  sense  protests  against  any  elimi- 
nation in  the  record.  If  the  naturahst  point 
to  the  flower  and  the  bird-song,  to  the  winding 


THE   SOUL'S    FOOD.  43 

brook  and  the  frisking  lamb,  and  exclaim  as 
^  commentary  on  this  text,  "God  is  love — God 
is  my  Father,"  I  have  a  right  to  point  to  the 
drought  and  the  famine,  to  the  deadly  cobra's 
fang  and  the  poisonous  breath  of  the  cholera, 
and  exclaim  as  commentary  on  this  text,  "  God 
is  angry — God  is  my  enemy."  I  defy  any  one 
to  find  a  flaw  in  my  reasoning.  We  have  had 
so  much  of  this  sentimental  naturahsm,  that  it 
has  obtained  a  circulation  as  of  true  coin,  and 
sensible  people  are  caught  by  its  sophistries. 
Some  of  the  blessed  truths  of  God's  word  are 
attributed  to  nature  as  their  author,  when 
nature's  voice  is  as  dumb  as  the  grave  on 
these  sublime  themes  ;  and  then  when  nature 
is  arrayed  in  these  jewels  from  God's  word, 
that  word  is  rejected  and  cast  out  as  a  pre- 
tender. What  does  nature  teach  at  the  grave 
but  corruption  ?  What  does  she  teach  in  sick- 
ness but  decay?  What  does  she  teach  in 
sorrow  but  despair  ?  And  this  nature  is  the 
comforter,  poor  soul,  to  which  j'ou  would  flee 
in  the  day  of  your  calamity ! 

It  is  something  above  and  against  nature 
that  we  need;  something  that  shall  say,  "Thus 


4:4:  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

far  and  no  farther  shalt  tliou  go,  and  here 
shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed ;"  something 
that  shall  rebuke  the  fever  and  the  pain,  as 
well  as  the  winds  and  the  weaves;  something 
that  shall  go  deeper  than  pain  and  sorrow,  to 
sin,  the  cause  of  all,  and  there  apply  a  balm ; 
something  that  shall  give  a  triumph  to  the 
spirit  in  the  face  of  conscience  and  the  truth, 
and  shall  fill  the  heart  with  holy  boldness. 
Before  these  requirements  how  nature  shrinks 
away!  "The  depth  saith,  'It  is  not  in  me,* 
and  the  sea  saith,  'It  is  not  in  me.'"  In  the 
midst  of  nature's  fairest  garden  w^e  must  look 
for  the  Kol  JeJiovah,  the  voice  of  the  Lord 
God,  as  something  very  different  from  the 
trees,  and  which  alone  can  touch  the  centre 
of  our  moral  being  and  guide  our  feet  in  truth. 
That  Kol  JeJiovah  has  never  been  wanting 
since  sin  rendered  man  helpless ;  and  whatever 
speculation  we  may  have  regarding  its  char- 
acter and  method  amid  the  wilds  of  barbarism 
or  the  refinements  of  elegant  paganism,  the 
practical  fact  for  us  is  its  presence  with  us  in 
the  Bible. 

The  ready  suggestion  of  superficial  skeptics, 


THE   SOUL'S  FOOD.  45 

that  others  have  their  Bibles  as  good  as  ours, 
and  that  it  is  vain  for  us  to  ignore  the  holy 
books  of  India,  Persia,  China  and  Arabia,  is  a 
suggestion  quite  hke  that  of  the  naturalist  for 
both  its  plausibility  and  its  weakness.  It  is  a 
very  captivating  liberality,  apparently,  that 
appeals  to  a  young  heart,  and  on  the  score  of 
common  justice  bids  it  honor  Vedas,  Koran, 
and  Bible  ahke.  The  same  excellent  liberahty 
would  have  us  honor  Gaudama,  Mohammed, 
and  Jesus  Christ  alike ;  and  a  perfectly  analo- 
gous and  comprehensive  liberality  would  call 
for  an  equal  homage  toward  God  and  the 
Devil.  "Good  Lord,  good  Devil,"  would  be 
the  appropriate  exordium  to  every  prayer.  It 
is  no  compliment  to  truth  to  spread  its  gar- 
ments over  error.  It  is  no  compliment  to 
truth  to  represent  her  as  looking  any  way  and 
all  ways.  It  is  no  comphment  to  truth  to  say 
"  2  and  2  make  4  or  5  or  6,  just  as  you  please. 
We  must  be  Uberal  and  let  each  be  true."  If 
this  be  Hberality,  I  know  of  no  place  so  fi'ee 
as  hell,  where  consistency  is  not  a  qualification 
for  admission.  If  the  Yedas  are  true,  then 
the  Koran  and  the  Bible  are  lies ;  if  the  Koran 


43  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

is  true,  then  the  Veclas  and  the  Bible  are  Hes ; 
and  if  the  Bible  is  true,  the  Vedas  and  the 
Koran  are  lies.  A  pagan  who  honors  the 
Yedas,  or  a  Mohammedan  who  honors  the 
Koran,  is  far  more  of  a  man  than  the  so-called 
Christian,  who  pretends  to  honor  Vedas,  Koran, 
and  Bible  all  alike.  They  are  false,  but  he  is 
both  false  and  shallow.  One  reading  of  the 
Vedas  or  Koran  will  stop  any  sane  man  from 
comparing  the  Bible  with  them ;  and  the  Per- 
sian and  Chinese  books  may  be  treated  in  the 
same  way.  Let  me  see  the  man  who  has  read 
both  and  is  in  doubt  which  is  the  true,  they 
or  the  Bible,  and  I  '11  show  you  a  man  who 
has  seen  the  sun  and  a  tallow-candle  Hght,  and 
cannot  for  the  life  of  him  tell  which  is  the 
perennial  luminary.  It  is  a  reproach  to 
humanity  that  such  rubbish  ever  has  to  be 
cleared  away  before  discussing  the  wonders  of 
the  Book  of  God.  But  the  devil  is  never  weary 
of  putting  the  fool's  cap  on  men. 

The  Kol  Jehovah,  the  voice  of  the  Lord  God, 
is  to  us  only  in  the  Book  of  God.  There  are 
promptings  and  guidings  in  Providence  and 
spiritual  influences,  but  the  voice^  the  articu- 


THE   SOUL'S  FOOD.  47 

lated  words  and  sentences  that  form  the  vehicle 
of  organic  truth — this  divine  defining  utter- 
ance is  found  only  in  the  Bible.  The  119th 
Psalm,  in  the  very  centre  of  the  Bible,  is  an 
enlargement  on  this  great  truth.  In  that 
psalm  the  psalmist  uses  seven  different  words 
to  express  the  luritten  revelation  of  God.  He 
seems  purposely  to  shut  out  any  twisting  of 
his  words  into  a  praise  of  "  sermons  in  stones 
and  books  in  the  running  brooks,"  and  to  con- 
fine the  mind  to  the  conteniplation  of  that 
specific  revelation  which  to-day  we  call,  with 
its  divine  increase,  the  Bible.  We  cannot  con- 
ceive of  any  other  way  in  which  God  could 
have  made  his  voice  heard  by  the  mass  of 
mankind  than  by  a  written  word.  A  Hteral 
voice,  an  appeal  to  the  ear,  would  have  reached 
the  treatment  of  a  natural  phenomenon  very 
shortly.  It  would  have  been  put  away  from 
the  conscience  and  soul  with  volcanoes  and 
earthquakes ;  criticism  would  have  erected  its 
batteries,  and  thrown  the  shell  of  fixed  law 
and  subjective  imagination  into  the  whole  sys- 
tem, or  else  the  ear,  accustomed  to  the  sound, 
would  have  given  it  no  heed.     Moreover,  the 


48  THE   HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN, 

literal  voice  could  not  be  examined,  analyzed, 
and  weighed,  as  can  the  written  word  and  its 
potent  evidences  thus  accumulated.  It  would 
have  had  to  become  a  written  word  in  order 
to  dwell  upon  earth  and  be  thoroughly  known. 
And  once  a  written  word  among  men,  there  is 
a  dishonoring  of  that  word  and  a  ruinous  in- 
dulgence of  man's  sloth  and  neglect  if  a  voice 
should  be  added  to  the  revelation. 

The  written  word  is  thus  the  light  of  our 
path.  It  is  the  perpetuation  of  heavenly  truth, 
a  candle  lighted  from  the  throne  of  God, 
which  can  never  be  extinguished.  In  its  rela- 
tion to  the  Christian,  or  the  Christian's  relation 
to  it. 

It  should  he  the  "  man  of  his  counseV 

This  is  the  Bible  phrase.  In  this  very  119th 
Psalm  we  have  the  words,  "thy  testimonies 
are  my  counsellors,"  hterally,  "men  of  my 
counsel."  This  phrase  of  David  corresponds 
to  the  words  of  Stephen,  Paul,  and  Peter,  who 
call  the  Scriptures  the  oracles  or  oracle  of 
God.  They  are  the  ever-present  source  of 
instruction  to  the  soul;  and,  as  divine,  can 
never  fail  to  meet  every  w^ant  proposed.    The 


THE   SOUL'S  FOOP.  49 

fulness  of  God  is  found  in  his  word,  and  this 
word  is  no  more  defective  in  its  instruction 
than  God  is  defective  in  his  love  and  mercj. 
Hence,  just  as  the  ship's  pilot  is  always  at  the 
helm  with  his  eye  upon  the  compass,  so  the 
healthy  behever  will  be  found  ever  directing 
his  course  by  this  unerring  guide.  This  im- 
plies an  intimate  acquaintance  with  -God's 
word  that  I  am  sure  is  not  common.  It  im- 
plies the  meditating  in  God's  law  day  and 
night,  which  seems  a  mere  Utopian  expression 
to  most  Christians.  But  yet  who  wants  a 
counsellor  with  whom  he  is  not  intimate  ?  And 
how  can  you  get  the  counsellor's  mind  unless 
you  sit  down  with  him  by  the  hour  and  ques- 
tion him  and  lead  out  his  manifold  instructions  ? 
Is  there  much  of  this  done  by  Christians  ?  I 
put  it  to  the  honest  opinion  of  my  readers.  Is 
God's  oracle  consulted,  is  his  word  pondered, 
is  this  divine  counsellor  received  into  intimate 
communion  by  the  so-called  people  of  God  ? 
Are  not  Christians  pleading  constantly  that 
they  have  no  time  to  search  the  Scriptures? 
This  is  their  response  to  the  Master !  But  in 
it  not  often  a  fear  lest  the  Scriptures  would 

Ika'.thy  Chriytian.  4 


50  THE   5EALTHY   CHEISTIAN. 

rebuke  mncli  of  their  daily  conduct  that  keeps 
them  away  ?  They  desire  not  its  counsel.  The 
"man  of  their  counsel"  is  not  the  man  whose 
counsel  is  agreeable.  But  what  can  be  sub- 
stituted ?  Our  reason  is  sadly  deficient.  God 
is  not  going  to  guide  us  by  dream  or  magic. 
He  has  not  promised  a  miracle.  The  Spirit's 
movement  is  always  through  the  ivord.  With 
the  word  unconsulted,  no  man  can  expect  the 
inspiration  of  the  Spirit.  "  To  the  law  and  to 
the  testimony"  is  the  cry  of  God  to  the  soul. 
There  and  there  only  are  our  orders  and  guar- 
antees. There  is  a  practical  necromancy  among 
Christians,  by  which  they  substitute  guesses, 
chances  and  native  cunning  for  the  authority 
and  teaching  of  God's  word.  They  walk  by 
the  sparks  of  their  own  kindHng  rather  than 
seek  God's  gracious  sunlight.  The  main  book 
on  the  merchant's  desk,  on  the  lady's  table,  in 
the  child's  school,  should  be  the  Bible.  It 
would  regulate  the  action  of  commerce,  society, 
and  education.  It  would  protect  men  in  trade 
from  the  temptations  to  fraud  and  deceit,  as 
well  as  from  over-absorption  in  material  inter- 
ests; it  would  protect  society  from  immodesty, 


THE   SOUL'S   FOOD.  51 

extravagance,  frivolity,  and  selfisliness ;  and  it 
would  save  the  grooving  minds  of  the  joiing 
from  the  poison  of  worldliness  and  practical 
infideUty,  which  form  the  staple  of  so  many 
schools.  Now,  while  this  is  the  legitimate 
place  and  office  of  God's  word  as  the  man  of 
our  counsel,  the  average  Christian  is  actually 
startled  by  the  proposition.  The  Bible  among 
ledgers !  The  Bible  in  a  drawing-room]  The 
Bible  to  be  read  and  taught  and  consulted  in 
our  fashionable  schools !  How  absurd !  And 
so  with  a  sneer  in  place  of  an  argument,  God's 
holy  word  is  dismissed  from  the  places  where 
above  all  others  it  shotild  appear  as  the  "man 
of  counsel ;"  and  you  may  be  sure  that  the 
hearts  that  have  been  ashamed  of  God's  oracle 
in  business  and  society  will  not  be  forward  to 
consult  it  in  the  closet.  The  Bible  is  what  we 
need  to  reform  both  business  and  society.  To 
reinstate  God's  pure  word  in  our  haunts  of 
commerce  and  our  social  gatherings,  as  the 
counsellor  and  thus  the  controller  of  all,  should 
be  the  aim  of  every  evangelizing  spirit.  Let 
the  Christian,  wherever  he  goes,  be  known  as 
the  Bible-man,  the  man  who  keeps  this  divine 


52  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

light  ever  before  his  feet.  For  God  to  give 
the  Hght  and  man  to  put  it  away  from  him  is 
to  court  disaster  and  defy  God.  Alas !  how 
many  are  doing  that !  How  many  are  putting 
the  divine  counsellor  into  a  dungeon  (like  Jere- 
miah) because  he  counsels  things  unpleasant 
to  our  greed  or  our  low  ambition  ? 

Let  us  emancipate  the  Bible,  and  place  it  in 
its  high  position  of  immediate  and  perpetual 
counsellor  to  the  soul,  a  position  to  which  God 
has  assigned  it. 


CHAPTEE    IV. 

THE    SOUL'S    FOOD  :      LOYE    FOR 
GOD'S    WORD. 

^HE  inspired  word  must  be  to  the 

believer  tbe  ohject  of  affection. 
Every  path  that  leads  to  heaven 
is  trodden  by  willing  feet.  No  one 
is  ever  driven  to  Paradise.  The  very 
essence  of  a  holy  life,  in  its  initiation  and 
its  consummation,  is  in  the  renewed  will.  It 
is  a  very  gross  view  of  heaven  that  counts 
it  a  place  only,  into  which  a  man  might  be 
cast,  whether  he  will  or  no.  All  true  reli- 
gion is  a  willing  religion.  Now  the  root  of 
the  will  is  in  the  affections.  It  is  the  new 
heart  that  makes  the  new  life.  A  man  wills 
to  follow  the  truth,  because  he  loves  the  truth. 
That  new  affection  is  the  original  germ  of 


54  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

his  godliness.  And  just  as  the  Christian 
Ufe  is  a  wiUing  hfe  growing  out  of  the  affec- 
tions, so  every  contribution  to  that  Hfe  from 
God's  grace  is  to  be  received  into  the  love 
of  the  soul,  before  it  can  be  made  efficient. 
The  Bible,  God's  revealed  truth,  is  to  be  not 
only  the  soul's  food,  but  the  soul's  delicious 
food,  or  else  it  does  not  at  all  adapt  itself  to 
the  whole  economy  of  God's  salvation.  God 
has  no  more  prepared  a  bitter  food  for  the 
soul,  than  he  has  prej)ared  a  painful  heaven. 
The  love  that  saves  does  not  delight  in  tor- 
menting. The  unpalatableness  of  God's  wdne 
must  be  in  the  diseased  palate.  It  is  a  favor- 
ite notion  with  some  that  God  delights  in 
making  his  people  uncomfortable.  They  seem 
to  think  that  Christ's  sufferings  for  sin  w^ere 
not  enough,  but  we  must  supplement  them. 
Hence  the  way  to  heaven  must  be  studiously 
beset  with  thorns  in  order  to  be  orthodox. 
Reading  Scripture  as  a  penance  belongs  to  this 
strange  school  of  self-righteous  piety.  Under 
this  pernicious  infatuation,  children  are  made 
to  read  portions  of  the  Bible  as  utterly  un- 
meaning to  them  as  a  page  of  the  Integral 


THE   SOUL'S    FOOD.  55 

Calculus,  and  so  a  distaste  and  disgust  for 
the  Word  of  God  is  generated  in  their  minds, 
and  thej  grow  up  with  an  aversion  to  the 
Blessed  Book  as  wholly  unnecessary  as  a 
repugnance  to  their  own  mother.  We  must 
go  back  to  first  principles.  If  the  means  of 
grace  are  not  delightful  to  us,  it  is  our  fault 
and  not  God's.  If  we  wander  away  from 
God,  he  may  send  afflictions  to  awaken  our 
conviction,  but  to  suppose  that  he  will  regu- 
larly deal  out  to  us  affliction  as  our  meat  and 
drink,  that  he  will  give  us  a  nauseous  drug  as 
our  daily  food,  is  insulting  to  the  character 
of  our  Heavenly  Father,  stnd  to  the  finished 
work  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  yet  to 
such  a  conclusion  must  we  come,  if  we  are  to 
read  the  Bible  only  as  a  duty,  if  we  are  to 
take  it  up  as  a  last  resort,  if  we  are  to  view  it 
as  a  Komanist  views  his  knotted  cord,  with 
which  at  appropriate  times  he  must  scourge 
Iihnself.  And  is  not  this  the  prevailing  notion 
in  the  church  of  Christ?  At  least,  does  not 
practice  suggest  the  thought  ? 

That  the  Bible  should  be  dishked  and  avoid- 
ed by  unbelievers,  whose  unrenewed  hearts 


56  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

would  be  ever  rebuked  by  it,  and  whose  un- 
renewed tastes  would  have  no  appreciation 
of  its  divine  beauty,  is  by  no  means  strange ; 
but  that  the  children  of  God,  born  into  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  and  receiving  the  Holy 
Ghost,  should  have  no  other  connection  with 
the  Word  but  that  which  conscience  sternly 
compels,  is  a  paradox  which  might  make  an- 
gels weep.  Go  tlirough  the  f amihes  you  know, 
and  see  this  strange  and  sad  phenomenon. 
In  how  many  Christian  families  the  Bible 
stands  no  chance  with  Shakespeare  or  the 
kist  novel!  Earely  touched  on  a  week-day, 
on  Simclays  even  the  biography  or  religious  (?) 
newspaper  is  preferred  to  it.  Love  for  the 
Bible!  why,  it  is  as  rare  as  love  for  the 
prayer-meeting,  and  love  for  Christian  com- 
munion. All  these  signs  of  spiritual  health 
fail  together.  The  fact  of  this  apathy  toward 
God's  Word  ought  to  alarm,  but  habit  weaves 
its  screen  before  the  mind  and  it  fails  to  see 
the  dangers  of  its  position.  It  was  lately  said 
that  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  have  an  auto 
da  fe  now  and  then  in  every  Christian  com- 
munity.    An  old-fashioned  persecution  might 


THE   SOUL'S   FOOD.  57 

arouse  the  church  of  Christ  and  separate  it 
from  the  world.  And  so  a  personal  disaster 
might  almost  be  sought  in  order  to  teach  us 
the  inestimable  preciousness  of  God's  Word. 
There  is  so  much  trifling  in  Christian  circles, 
so  much  flitting  hither  and  thither  in  chase  of 
bubbles,  so  much  superficial  pietj,  so  much 
zeal  for  ribbons,  that  unless  disaster  come 
and  shake  the  earthly  foundations,  it  seems 
impossible  that  deep  and  grand  and  heavenly 
thoughts  can  enter  these  souls  and  so  the 
blessed  Bible  become  a  cherished  treasure. 
I  have  read  of  a  poor  blind  girl  in  France 
who  obtained  the  gospel  of  Mark  in  raised 
letters,  and  learned  to  read  it  by  the  ends  of 
her  fingers.  By  the  pecuhar  character  of  her 
daily  toil  her  fingers  became  callous,  and  her 
sense  of  touch  diminished  till  she  could  not 
distinguish  the  letters.  One  day  she  cut  the 
skin  from  the  ends  of  her  fingers  to  increase 
their  sensibility,  only,  however,  to  destroy  it. 
>She  felt  that  she  must  now  give  up  her  be- 
loved book,  and  weeping,  pressed  it  to  her 
lips,  saying,  "Farewell,  farewell,  sweet  word 
of  my  Heavenly  Father,  food  for  my  soul !  T 


58  THE   HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

must  part  with  thee!"  But  to  her  surprise, 
her  hps,  more  dehcate  than  her  fingers,  dis- 
cerned the  form  of  the  letters.  She  read 
"Gospel  according  to  Mark."  Her  soul,  over- 
flowing with  gratitude,  pours  out  thanks  be- 
fore the  throne  of  her  Father  in  heaven.  All 
night  she  perused  with  her  lips  the  holy  book, 
and  her  heart  overflowed  with  joy  at  the  new 
acquisition. 

Oh  for  such  a  love  for  God's  word  in  the 
hearts  of  God's  people!  Shall  we  wait  for 
disasters  before  we  know  our  privileges  and 
cultivate  our  true  dehghts?  Does  it  not  seem 
sometimes  as  if  we  should  have  to  become 
blind,  so  as  not  to  see  the  glittering  follies 
about  us,  in  order  to  prize  aright  our  Jesus 
and  his  "Word  ?  Are  we  not  sometimes  assured 
in  our  reflections  that  afflictive  dispensations 
are  a  necessity  for  our  promotion,  that  only 
the  sternness  of  this  treatment  can  transfer 
us  to  our  true  position  and  spiritual  relations 
as  the  children  of  God  ?  Nay,  is  not  this  the 
philosophy  that  unlocks  the  whole  mystery 
of  affliction  ?  And  to  one  who  understands  this 
philosophy  may  not  many  a  blow  be  avoided 


THE   SOUL'S    FOOD.  59 

by  learning  the  lesson  from  those  already 
received  and  flying  to  the  refuge  of  Clirist's 
bosom  where  peace  is  found?  In  urging 
Christians  to  love  the  "Word,  I  am  really  urg- 
ing them  to  love  the  Lord  more.  When  they 
are  filled  with  his  love,  they  will  love  his  love- 
letters.  When  they  f ^el  that  no  love-relation 
is  so  grand  and  so  absorbing  as  that  which 
binds  them  to  the  Saviour,  they  will  then  feel 
that  no  words  are  so  sweet  as  his,  no  book 
so  precious  as  that  which  speaks  of  him  and 
speaks  from  him  to  the  saved  soul.  And  so> 
conversely,  if  the  Bible  is  not  lovingly  pon- 
dered, then  there  is  but  little  force  in  the  love 
for  Jesus,  the  appreciation  of  his  glorious 
presence  is  dull,  the  thoughts  of  his  wooing 
and  winning  work  for  the  soul  are  benumbed. 
And  here  let  me  call  attention  to  a  type 
of  Christian  often  fc>und,  in  which  self-decep- 
tion surrounds  itself  with  plausibility.  It  is 
where  the  love  of  Christ  is  deemed  sufficient 
without  the  Word.  The  Bible  is  neglected, 
and  the  soul  comforts  itself  with  knowing  that 
it  can  commune  with  the  Lord  without  any 
medium.     While  this  is  literally  true,  yet  the 


60  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

danger  is  very  great  that  where  the  argument 
is  used,  there  is  a  substitution  of  nature,  or 
vague  sentiment,  or  art-dreams  for  Christ.  If 
we  stay  long  from  the  Bible  where  Christ's 
picture  is,  we  are  apt  to  form  another  sort  of 
Christ  in  the  soul,  and  a  very  carnal  one,  too. 
Many  a  professed  Christian  can  consort  fully 
with  the  w^orld,  separate  himseK  from  God's 
people,  aud  count  the  Bible  stupid,  and  yet 
carry  with  him  a  supposed  Christ.  There  is 
no  security  except  in  the  ever  fresh  recurrence 
to  the  revealed  Word.  There  is  the  hkeness 
of  the  ineffable  One.  "They  are  they,"  says 
Jesus,  "which  testify  of  me."  The  Christ  in 
the  waterfall  or  meadow,  the  Christ  in  the 
marble  or  on  the  canvas,  the  Christ  in  the 
aesthetic  transports  of  the  mind,  the  Christ  in 
the  softness  of  a  social  refinement  may  be  a 
mere  spectacular  Christ  t)f  the  imagination, 
a  low,  human  Christ,  and  not  the  divine  Je- 
sus who  saves  his  people  from  their  sins,  who 
creates  them  anew,  who  expels  from  their 
hearts  the  love  of  the  world  by  filling  those 
hearts  with  himself,  who  sanctifies  their  mo- 
tives, aims,  and  principles,  and  in  short  in 


THE    SOUL'S   FOOD.  61 

their  entire  lives  substitute  God  for  self.  As 
we  have  seen,  the  Christ  who  is  in  us  is  intro- 
duced within  us  by  the  w^ord.  Just  as  the 
blood  of  the  body  is  formed  from  the  food  of 
the  body,  so  Christ,  the  blood  of  the  soul,  is 
formed  from  the  word,  the  food  of  the  soul. 
The  written  word  becomes  the  personal  Word 
within  us.  A  Christ  without  the  Bible  is  as 
impossible  as  a  salvation  without  a  Christ. 
Neglecters  of  the  Bible  are  neglecters  of 
Christ,  however  much  they  may  beguile  them- 
selves with  some  sentimental  illusion,  a  pseudo- 
Christ  in  a  pseudo-Christianity.  The  face  of 
Jesus  is  so  full  of  graces  and  glories  that  we 
cannot  imagine  it  independently ;  we  must  look 
upon  it  to  know  it,  and  in  the  Bible  only  do 
5ve  look  upon  it.  There  it  is — that  wonder- 
ful face  of  love  and  truth.  The  study  of  that 
face  can  never  weary,  the  knowledge  of  its 
infinite  beauty  can  never  be  complete.  To 
go  away  from  the  Bible  is  to  cloud  over  those 
features  and  introduce  a  distorting  medium. 
Hence  arise  coldness,  formalism,  worldhness, 
and  the  anti-christ  of  religious  dreaminess, 
which  so  many  take  in  place  of  the  Crucified. 


62  THE    HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

These  considerations  make  it  evident  that  a 
love  of  God's  word  is  a  requisite  for  the  true 
Christ-hfe  of  the  soul.  There  will  be,  there 
can  be  no  true  application  to  that  word  except 
by  love,  and  there  can  be  no  love  for  that 
word  except  where  there  is  love  of  Christ,  of 
whom  that  word  is  the  exponent.  The  two 
are  correlated  and  reciprocal.  The  love  of 
Christ  brings  us  to  the  Bible.  The  love  of 
the  Bible  brings  us  to  Christ.  The  two  are 
indissolubly  united  in  the  very  nature  of  truth. 
Woe  to  the  soul  that  attempts  their  dissev- 
erance ! 

If  any  one,  in  the  light  of  these  tniths, 
declares  his  desire  to  love  the  word,  as  he 
a-ppreciates  his  dereliction  in  the  past,  and 
asks  for  counsel,  as  he  feels  it  a  hard  thing 
to  love  what  he  does  rwt  love,  the  answer  is 
found  in  the  same  light  which  prompts  the 
question.  Your  whole  religious  life  is  out  of 
sorts,  if  you  do  not  love  God's  word.  You 
need  a  revolution  in  your  life.  You  have 
habits  to  be  mended,  ways  to  be  abandoned, 
duties  to  be  assumed,  for  your  present  sys- 
tem of  hfe  is  not  formed  after  Christ  and  his 


THE    SOUL'S   FOOD.  63 

word.  You  are  to  draw  nearer  to  Jesus  in 
a  love-consecration,  and  that  with  his  word 
in  your  hands ;  and  as  in  doing  this,  you  feel 
that  many  a  darling  folly  is  slipping  from 
your  grasp,  let  them  go.  The  love  of  Jesus 
will  not  bear  such  silly  rivals.  As  Jesus  be- 
comes more  known,  the  Bible  will  be  more 
prized,  and  as  the  Bible  is  more  prized,  Jesus 
will  become  more  precious  and  powerful  to 
you.  It  is  the  two,  then,  you  are  to  seek. 
Not  Jesus  without  the  Bible — that  would  land 
you  in  sentimentalism.  Not  the  Bible  with- 
out Jesus — that  would  make  you  a  legal  for- 
mahst.  But  the  Bible  and  Jesus  together; 
and  drive  everything  out  of  your  path  that 
would  interfere  with  your  seeking. 

If  such  a  love  of  the  word  of  God  were  rife 
in  the  church  of  Christ,  we  should  see  every 
Christian  as  eager  to  gain  time  for  Bible 
meditation  as  he  is  to  procure  the  morning 
paper.  The  desire  would  be  before  the  sense 
of  duty.  As  a  consequence  of  this,  he  would 
know  the  Bible,  its  promises  and  precepts  not 
only,  but  all  its  connections  and  inter-depen- 
dencies.     More   than   that,   the   deep   inner 


64  THE   HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

meanings  of  the  word  would  be  ever  bub- 
bling up  to  him  like  the  diamond  waters  of  a 
mountain  spring,  refreshing  liis  whole  being, 
and  making  him  forget  the  weariness  and  toil 
of  life.  He  would  become,  as  it  were,  in- 
spired by  the  divine  truth..  It  would  be  so 
interwoven  into  his  nature,  that  its  heavenly 
principles  would  not  have  to  be  sought  after, 
but  would  spontaneously  assert  themselves  in 
all  his  movements. 

The  perplexed  questions  of  duty  would  all 
disappear  before  the  tutored  promptings  of 
a  Bible-pervaded  soul.  Casuistry  would  have 
no  place  where  God's  philosophy  would  rule. 
The  life,  surcharged  with  tinith  would,  be- 
sides, electrify  all  its  contacts  with  truth's 
power.  If  the  church  would  thus  feed  ear- 
nestly and  heartily  on  God's  word,  its  whole 
tone  of  action  and  conversation  would  be 
marvellously  changed.  It  would  be  taking 
the  divine  means  of  elevation  to  an  angehc 
standard.  The  ordinary  themes  of  material 
life  would  shrink  to  their  subordinate  position 
and  the  busy  nothings  which  consume  so  much 
time  and  thought  would  be  lost  in  the  sub- 


THE    SOUL'S    FOOD.  65 

stantial  occupations  of  a  healthy  piety.  Such 
power  has  the  Bible  and  the  Bible  only. 
Such  transmutations  of  the  whole  man  can 
it  alone  produce,  for  it  is  the  wisdom  of  God 
and  the  power  of  God  m  the  receptive  heart. 
Oh !  it  is  this  power  we  need  amid  the  mass 
of  frivolity  that  encumbers  the  church,  and 
makes  it  drag  on  its  w^ay  so  awkwardly  and 
slowly  towards  the  millennium.  Millennium ! 
can  it  be  that  God's  people  are  seeking  and 
longing  for  its  glories  ?  Is  its  sheen  of  beauty 
a  captivating  prospect  to  their  faith  ?  Is  its 
peace  and  holiness  a  star  of  guidance  to  their 
pilgrim  feet?  Nay,  rather,  are  not  ceiled 
houses  and  ephemeral  comforts  or  displays 
contenting  their  thoughts  and  aspirations,  and 
God's  sweet  coming  dawn  forgotten  in  the 
artificial  hghts  of  the  present  night-time?  And 
is  not  it  all  this  wrong  arrangement  of  our 
Christian  life  that  is  making  its  most  natural 
mistakes  in  our  view  of  everything  else  ? 
Does  not  it  give  death  the  very  name  as  well  as 
character  which  it  has  no  right  to  in  a  Chris- 
tian's mind?  Does  not  it  emphasize  every 
loss  and  disappointment  with  a  tone  of  an- 

Healthy  Christian.  5 


66  THU   HEALTHY   CHEISTIAN. 

guish,  where  each  should  be  arrayed  vnth  a 
crown  of  hope  ?  Does  not  it  tarnish  all  the 
gold  of  love  with  the  rust  of  selfishness?  Oh 
for  faith  in  God's  Bible,  a  faith  that  would 
work  by  love  and  gather  daily  the  manna, 
lifting  the  thankful  eye  to  the  gracious  heaven 
that  sent  it !  This  is  the  angels'  food.  It  is 
only  they  who  love  Egyptian  slavery  who  can 
loathe  it.  The  angehc  character  will  prize 
the  angehc  fare.  I  would  that  the  testimony 
of  the  dying  saint  whose  heart  is  all  aglow 
with  the  life-touch  of  the  word,  of  the  pov- 
erty-stricken child  of  God  who  revels  in  the 
eternal  wealth  of  the  Scriptures,  of  the  de- 
spised and  rejected  behever  who  in  the  holy 
lore  has  learned  how  to  despise  all  human 
contumely  and  scorn,  of  the  heart  smitten 
down  to  death  that  has  achieved  a  glad  resur- 
rection at  the  voice  of  the  heavenly  truth — I 
would  that  the  testimony  of  these,  mingling 
in  one  grand  chord  of  celestial  harmony,  could 
be  concentrated  upon  the  souls  of  all  who 
read  this,  and  persuade  them  now  to  put 
themselves  in  full  relation  with  the  living 
oracles.     It  is  as  we  listen  to  our  God  speak- 


THE    SOUL'S   FOOD.  67 

ing,  that  the  great  God-life  tingles  through 
our  souls;  it  is  as  we  receive  the  sentiment 
and  the  logic  of  the  skies  that  the  dreariness 
and  obscurity  of  earthly  sentiment  is  lost,  and 
the  false  and  unsatisfying  logic  of  the  world 
is  driven  to  its  tomb.  "Walking  with  God  is 
the  summit  of  privilege  and  happiness,  and 
that  exalted  walk  is  found  when  the  voice  of 
prayer  and  praise  has  birth  and  sustenance 
in  the  soothing  voice  of  God  speaking  through 
the  revealed  word,  to  the  listening  and  enrap- 
tured spirit.  Here  is  the  secret  that  so  many 
miss.  They  turn  hither  and  thither  in  unrest, 
while  their  Beloved  is  near  them  in  vain. 
They  do  not  know  the  tahsmanic  power  of 
this  neglected  Book.  No  enchanted  carpet, 
that  bore  the  fabled  prince  to  wished -for 
realms,  could  so  transfer  the  soul  to  the  com- 
panionship of  glory.  All  stories  fail  to  reach 
the  high  analogy,  and  represent  the  rare  dis- 
coveries of  peace  and  spiritual  plenty  to  which 
the  trusting  heart  is  borne  by  tliis  celestial 
vehicle  of  grace,  which  wears  so  earthly  and 
so  unpretending  form.  Fear  not  to  give  your- 
selves to  the  love  of  the  Bible.     There  can  be 


68  THE   HEALTHY   CHKISTIAN. 

no  idolatry  here.  Idolatry  can  only  cling  to 
the  letter,  but  it  is  the  spiritual  voice  of  the 
word  to  which  the  Lord  invites  us,  when  he 
says,  "Search  the  Scriptures — for  they  are 
they  which  testify  of  Me''  If  you  beheve  that 
that  Lord  Jesus  is  worth  more  than  all  be- 
sides, if  you  recognize  your  own  salvation  as 
his  fond  work,  if  you  know  that  the  all  of  God 
that  can  shine  on  human  hearts  resides  in 
that  blessed  Christ,  then  leap  to  the  happy 
task  of  learning  that  Saviour  better  by  the 
means  himseK  has  provided.  No  longer  let 
the  Bible  be  a  book  respectfully  neglected; 
no  longer  let  its  divine  light  reach  you  only 
through  the  imperfect  media  of  human  trea- 
tises or  human  Hps;  but  press  through,  for 
the  way  is  open  to  you,  press  through  all 
interposing  veils,  and  in  the  Holy  of  holies 
bathe  your  exultant  spirit  in  the  radiance  that 
there  overflows  from  the  oracle  of  God. 


CHAPTEK   V. 


THE     SOUL'S     FRESH     AIR. 


"Me  THAT    WALKETH     WITH     WISE     MEN 
SHALL   BE   WISE."  Pl\OV.     I3   *.   20. 

<M  {  ^"Wr>^:r^;«T  is  not  good  for  man  to  be 
alone"  was  God's  own  declara- 
tion at  the  birth  of  the  race.  A 
man's  society  is  as  necessary  to  his 
growth  as  his  individuality.  Indeed 
he  has  no  individuahty  except  in  society.  He 
is  born  with  tendrils,  and  begins  with  life  to 
grope  for  something  to  clasp.  His  thoughts 
are  not  his  own  till  he  has  communicated  them 
to  others,  and  his  moral  sense  is  but  a  blunt 
potentiality  till  it  is  developed  toward  his  fel- 
lows.    The  Church  of  God  is  founded  on  this 


70  THE  HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

principle.     It  is  an  aggregation,  or  congrega- 
tion, with  its  infinite  collateral  supports.    It  is 
like  the  golden  boards  of  the  tabernacle  stand- 
ing together  and  bound  together  by  golden 
bars,  preserving  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  by  the 
bonds  of  peace,  and  forming  together  a  dwelHng 
for  the  God  of  the  church,  in  which  an  accept- 
able service  is  offered  and  where  the  light  of 
His  glory  shines  from  between  the  cherubim. 
The  "assembling  of  ourselves  together"  is  a 
token  of  the  social  union  of  believers  in  Christ 
and  a  divine  hint  of  this  essential  principle  of 
Christian   growth   and    health.      Hermitages 
and  monasteries  are  Buddhist,  not  Christian 
institutions,  defying  the  revealed  will  of  God 
and  the  spiritual  instincts  of  the  new  birth. 
As  the  fresh  air  is  necessary  for  the  lungs,  by 
which  they  perform  their  renewing  functions, 
and  purify  the  blood  of  the  body,  so  the  society 
of  believers  is  necessary  to  the  spiritual  life, 
preserving  it  from  a  false  entrance  of  the  word 
and  a  false  development  of  Christ  in  the  soul. 
The  word  is  the  soul's  food,  but  the  society  of 
God's  people  is  the  soul's  inbreathing,  and 
God  has  ordained  the  one  as  well  as  the  other 


THE   SOUL'S    FBESH   AIR.  71 

that  Christ  may  be  tnily  and  fully  formed  in 
lis  as  the  healthy  blood  is  formed  in  the  body. 
God's  people  to-day  have  to  be  instructed 
in  this  great  truth,  as  the  Corinthian  Chris- 
tians were  instructed  by  Paul.  The  Corinthian 
Christians  fell  into  the  society  of  worldly  peo- 
ple, the  usual  arguments  of  rank,  position, 
wealth,  fashion  urging  them  to  this  course. 
The  apostle  traces  thek  spiritual  misfortunes 
to  this  sad  error.  He  shows  them  that  their 
social  relations  should  be  confined  to  beUevers ; 
that  between  the  soul  with  Christ  and  the  soul 
without  Christ  a  great  gulf  was  fixed — blessed 
be  God,  not  an  impassable  one,  and  hence 
courtesy,  Idndness,  and  compassionate  interest 
might  stretch  across  it,  but  yet  it  was  a  great 
gulf — which  forbade  the  communion  of  inti- 
macy and  the  confidential  relations  of  the 
inner  friendship.  A  bridging  of  this  gulf  was 
a  betrayal  of  truth,  an  alliance  with  the  ene- 
my, a  degradation  of  the  holy  standard,  a 
reproach  to  Christ.  Hear  the  apostle's  words : 
"Be  ye  not  unequally  yoked  together  with 
unbelievers ;  for  what  fellowship  hath  righte- 
ousness with  unrighteousness  ?   or  v/hat  com- 


72  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

munion  hath  hght  with  darkness?  and  what 
concord  hath  Christ  with  Behal  ?  or  what  part 

hath  a  behever  with  an  unbehever  ? 

Wherefore  come  out  from  among  them  and  be 
ye  separate,  saitL  the  Lord,  and  touch  not  the 
unclean  thing ;  and  I  will  receive  you  and  will 
be  a  Father  unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be  my  sons 
and  daughters,  saith  the  Lord  Almighty."  If 
all  this  does  not  refer  to  the  social  relations  of 
Christians,  to  what  else  can  it  refer?  That 
the  Corinthians  were  idolaters  does  not  help 
the  matter,  for  while  that  fact  is  objected 
against  them  as  one  argument  for  separation 
from  them,  yet  the  main  argument  is  that  they 
were  unhelievers.  The  apostle's  argument  and 
apostolic  order  are,  therefore,  for  to-day  as 
for  then,  for  this  nominally  Christian  land  as 
for  pagan  Corinth.  This  hrepo^vyia  or  unequal 
yoking  together  is  the  social  intimacy  of  be- 
liever with  unbeliever.  An  idolater  is  no 
worse  than  any  other  unbeliever.  The  unbe- 
lief is  what  does  the  mischief  in  society.  It 
steals  unobserved  into  the  Christian's  heart 
from  his  contact  with  moral  and  excellent  un- 
beUevers,  and  the  poison  is  more  subtle  as  the 


THE   SOUL'S   FEESH  AIR.  73 

unbeliever  is  more  moral  and  liigli-mincled. 
Christ  is  unthroned  and  a  new  Christ  is  intro- 
duced. The  believer  wishes  to  be  on  the  same 
plane  with  his  intimate  friend,  and  so  lowers 
his  distinctive  and  specific  truth  to  the  level 
of  some  general  religion,  which  is  at  bottom 
the  substitution  of  a  self-philosophy  for  reve- 
lation. In  this  way,  hearts  that  have  been 
enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  behold  the 
cross  have  given  up  both  Hght  and  cross  in 
order  to  perform  the  behests  of  a  high-toned 
friendship.  Beauty  of  sentiment  and  even 
philanthropy  are  used  in  cementing  this  "  une- 
qual yoking,"  against  which  it  is  perilous  to 
argue,  for  noble  sentiment  and  philanthropy 
are  fine  things  and  they  demand  recognition 
and  homage  from  all ;  and  so  by  these  specious 
means  the  Christian  is  un-Christed  and  thrown 
into  a  wide  and  dreary  sea  of  natural  religion, 
the  religion  of  birds,  beasts,  and  fishes. 

Another  style  of  mind  fares  no  better — in 
outward  appearance,  worse.  In  this  case  the 
believer  by  social  communion  with  unbelievers 
who  love  and  live  for  display,  soon  begins  to 
form  tlie  same  tastes  and  cultivate  the  same 


74  THE   HEALTHY    CHllISTIAN. 

desires  with  them.  The  gay  Hfe  is  led,  the 
spiritual  promptings  to  a  useful  hfe  are  re- 
pressed even  to  paralysis,  worldly  excitement 
becomes  the  only  food  the  soul  can  feed  on, 
and  the  name  of  the  holy  Christ  is  dragged  by 
the  apostate  believer  into  this  career  of  mock- 
ery. Sometimes  gross  sins,  such  as  those 
which  even  the  world  proscribes,  yawn  to  en- 
gulf such  a  straying  believer,  putting  a  con- 
demnation upon  him  in  his  own  sight  which 
he  had  long  since  had  in  the  sight  of  the 
angels. 

Another  style  of  mind,  by  this  unequal  yok- 
ing, is  found  making  moneyed  gains  by  low 
and  selfish  ways,  grinding  the  faces  of  the  poor 
and  taking  advantage  of  others'  misfortunes 
under  the  robber's  plea,  "all  is  fair  in  trade." 
By  a  close  association  with  the  unbeheving  in 
the  conduct  of  financial  business,  not  only  are 
the  heavenly  graces  of  forbearance,  charity, 
and  brotherly  love  quenched,  but  common 
justice  is  abused.  Christians  cheat  one  an- 
other under  the  name  of  business  transactions ; 
they  accumulate  riches  by  deceit  and  fraud ; 
they  leave  debts  unpaid  while  they  indulge  in 


THE    SOUL'S   FRESH   AIR.  75 

luxurious  living,  taking  advantage  of  some 
technicality  of  weak  human  law  and  forgetting 
the  unalterable  divine  law ;  they  bring  up  their 
children  for  the  same  feverish  mammon-wor- 
ship and  plunge  them  into  the  same  temptations 
with  the  specious  plea,  "Oh!  aU  the  world 
does  it ;  we  must  not  run  counter  to  the  cur- 
rent of  life."  Such  are  some  of  the  manifold 
and  fearful  evils  which  arise  for  the  Church  of 
Christ  from  this  hepot^vyta  or  unequal  'yoking 
together  of  believers  with  unbelievers.  Young 
and  thoughtless  Christians,  without  much  ex- 
perience, have  very  little  idea  of  this  truth, 
and  are  ready  to  combat  it  with  much  indig- 
nation. "  Is  not  the  Gospel  liberal  ?  Does  it 
not  preach  charity  ?  and  now  am  I  to  give  up 
my  intimacies  with  my  sworn  fiiends  on  the 
ground  of  a  Gospel  demand  ?  That  would  be 
a  narrow  Puritanism — a  wretched  bigotry — 
I  '11  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  I  icill  have  friends 
who  are  not  believers."  And  so  the  will,  cap- 
tivated by  the  world,  makes  its  indignant 
decision,  while  the  Holy  Spirit  speaks  in  vain 
v/ith  warning  voice,  "  What  part  hath  a  believer 
with  an  unbeliever?"     The  love  of  holy  things 


76  THE    HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

steals  away  so  imperceptibly — the  love  of 
worldly  things  steals  in  so  imperceptibly — the 
whole  transmutation  is  so  very  natural,  with- 
out jar  or  surprise,  that  the  young  Christian 
does  not  realize  the  dreadful  change.  The 
young  man  must  go  into  business,  but  he 
forgets  that  it  is  his  Christian  duty  to  discrimi- 
nate in  business ;  and  the  young  woman  must 
go  into  society,  but  she  forgets  that  it  is  her 
Christian  duty  to  discriminate  in  society.  Nei- 
ther into  business  nor  society  have  I  a  right 
to  go,  except  by  the  Lord's  own  ways.  If  I 
do  otherwise,  I  lose  all  the  Lord's  privileges. 
And  to  go  into  either  of  them  through  worldly 
intimacies  is  to  despise  the  Lord's  way  alto- 
gether. 

"  But  oh !  how  much  I  should  have  to  give 
up!"  says  the  young  Christian,  thinking  of 
worldly  successes,  worldly  applause,  the  gains 
of  avarice  or  vanity.  Very  well.  Did  you 
never  hear  Jesus  say  anything  about  plucking 
out  a  right  eye  and  cutting  off  a  right  hand 
for  him  ?  This  is  the  very  eye  he  wishes  you 
to  pluck  out — the  very  hand  he  wishes  you  to 
cut  off.     It  will  save  your  soul.     This  worldly 


THE   SOUL'S   FKESH   AIR.  77 

society  is  sapping  your  spiritual  vitality.  You 
are  too  young  to  know  the  full  force  of  the 
truth.  Take  older  Christians'  word  for  it. 
Take  Christ's  word  for  it:  "What  part  hath  a 
believer  with  an  unbeHever?" 

And  now  let  us  look  at  the  positive  side  of 
this  question.  Let  us  ask  how  a  believer  is  to 
form  his  social  alhances,  since  we  have  seen 
how  he  is  not  to  form  them. 

In  general  he  is  to  select  godly  souls  for  his 
intimates.  The  divine  word  enunciates  the  uni- 
versal principle:  "He  that  walketh  with  wise 
men  shall  be  wise."  The  wisdom  of  which 
God's  word  treats  is  the  wisdom  which  practi- 
cally recognizes  the  claims  of  God  on  the  heart 
and  Ufe,  and  the  wise  man  is  the  godly  mian. 
The  first  meaning  of  that  passage  in  its  high 
sense  is,  that  godliness  is  promoted  hy  com- 
munion  ivitli  the  godly;  and  the  next  inferential 
meaning  is,  that  the  j^^oper  communion  of  the 
godly  is  with  the  godly.  We  need  not  stop 
here  to  examine  the  psychological  principle  on 
which  these  truths  are  founded.  Personal 
esteem,  desire  to  please,  self-approval,  uncon- 
scious imitation,  the  necessities  of  social  com- 


78  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

bination — all  these  are  elements  of  the  working 
by  which  like  begets  like,  by  which  social  life 
is  a  crucible  of  assimilation.  But  more  than 
assimilation  is  obtained.  There  is  augmenta- 
tion— increase  of  force  for  good  or  for  evil,  in 
the  alliances  of  society.  "As  iron  sharpeneth 
iron,  so  a  man  sharpeneth  the  countenance  of 
his  friend."  The  old  adage  is  universally  re- 
ceived, "In  union  is  strength."  Social  union 
strengthens  all  the  distinctive  features  of  the 
union.  Is  it  a  worldly  society?  The  world- 
liness  is  intensified  and  raised  to  a  higher 
power  by  the  union.  Is  it  a  godly  society? 
The  spiritual  truth  and  beauty  of  the  alliance 
are  enhanced  by  the  very  fact  of  the  com- 
munion. 

In  putting  then  the  general  principle  into 
practice,  there  is,  first,  the  duty  of  Christian 
parents  to  select  the  early  companions  of  their 
children  with  care,  and  exclude  the  vicious 
and  evil-disposed,  even  at  the  cost  of  sunder- 
ing friendships  and  alienating  relatives.  Better, 
far  better  to  say  farewell  for  ever  to  the 
parents,  however  dear,  than  to  ruin  your  off- 
spring for  ever  by  the  contaminating  influence 


THE   SOUL'S  FKESH   AIR.  79 

of  the  ill-trained  and  sin-indulged  children. 
Then,  in  riper  years,  when  your  children  have 
understood  their  relation  to  God  as  redeemed 
by  the  blood  of  Christ — and  the  children  of 
all  Christians  should  early  reach  that  under- 
standing and  personal  faith — ^it  is  for  you  to 
bestow  much  supervision  upon  the  friendships 
that  are  formed  in  the  tender  and  heedless 
days  of  youth.  You  have  the  power  to  invite 
to  your  house  the  proper  young  friends  and  to 
keep  out  the  improper.  Exercise  this  power 
as  to  God.  Let  no  laws  of  etiquette  set  aside 
the  law  of  God.  If  you  have  to  cut  off  whole 
famihes  of  the  highest  respectability  and  most 
desirable  position  from  your  circle,  by  refus- 
ing special  home-friendships  to  theu'  young 
people,  cut  them  off  with  the  independence  of 
an  emperor.  Let  the  dukes  and  marquises 
go,  and  good  riddance  to  them,  that  your 
children  may  escape  the  pollution  of  the  vain 
Hfe  with  which  their  worldly  children  would 
inoculate  them.  Never  let  your  children  have 
the  beginning  of  these  low  but  fascinating 
tastes.  It  is  the  httle  beginning  that  whets 
the  appetite  for  more,  and  then  the  indulgent 


80  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

parent  begins  to  say,  "  How  can  I  keep  my 
dear  children  from  society?"  by  "society" 
meaning  simply  this  gay  and  worldly  form  of 
society;  and  this  cry  of  the  parent  is  a  re- 
sponse to  the  cry  of  the  child  who  has  tasted 
the  glittering  vanity,  "How  could  you  coop 
me  up  and  make  my  life  to  languish  by  im- 
prisonment?" where  the  dreadful  imprison- 
ment and  the  cruel  treatment,  suggestive  of 
the  Tower  of  London  and  Smithfield,  are  only 
the  withholding  of  the  child  from  the  poison 
of  a  fashionable  or  semi-fashionable  hfe.  If 
you  would  only  begin  at  the  beginning  with 
your  children,  you  would  avoid  all  trouble  on 
this  score.  Alas !  too  often  you  think  far  less 
of  their  souls'  health  and  God's  will  than  of 
earthly  preferment  for  them  and  yourselves, 
and  so  you  are  drawn  in,  and  they  too,  and 
sink  in  the  vortex. 

But,  secondly,  turning  from  parents,  I  speak 
to  young  Christians  themselves,  and  urge  them 
to  ally  themselves  with  one  another.  Do  not 
say  that  Christians  are  too  few.  How  many 
intimate  friends  do  you  want?  Six  or  eight 
are  as  many  as  one  person  can  well  manage, 


THE    SOUL'S   FRESH    AIR.  81 

Two  or  three  are  a  more  available  number. 
Can  you  not  find  six  or  eight  Christian  friends, 
who  in  taste  and  education  and  refinement 
suit  you  ?  Did  you  ever  try  ?  Did  you  ever 
ask  God  to  help  you  find  them  ?  The  trouble, 
I  think,  has  been  in  your  utter  carelessness  in 
the  matter.  You  have  never  felt  it  to  be  an 
important  question.  You  must  feel  the  truth 
from  God,  and  then  you  will  find  the  way  to 
conform  to  it. 

The  social  side  of  our  nature  is  not  devel- 
oped, as  it  should  be,  in  our  churches.  There 
is  a  repellant  coldness  that  is  unseemly  and 
un- Christian.  All  the  childish  folly  of  caste 
and  rank  which  belongs  to  the  world  as  one 
of  its  bawbles  is  assumed  by  the  Church  of 
Jesus,  which  ought  to  live  above  it  and  despise 
it.  Tosses  of  the  head,  supercihous  airs,  "  I  'm 
better  than  you"  looks,  which  are  very  suitable 
to  an  ignorant  world  that  has  no  God,  are 
found  among  those  who  have  been  exalted  to 
be  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  Lord  of 
glory.  No  denunciation  of  all  this  can  be  too 
strong.  The  church  must  make  the  breach 
between  ifc  and  the  world  wider,  must  cut  off 

H<-alth    Ch.it.tian.  6 


82  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

all  communications  except  those  of  courtesy 
and  Christian  help,  must  live  within  itself  and 
thus  nourish  the  Christ-life,  and  in  its  own 
w^ork  among  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  and  the 
young  must  make  and  cement  the  social  union 
of  its  own  members.  What  a  strange  idea 
inhabits  some  Christian  minds,  that  young 
Christians  can  only  be  happy  when  allowed  to 
mingle  wdth  w^orldly  people!  Society  with 
Christian  companions  cannot  produce  happi- 
ness !  There  is  the  same  lamentable  notion 
of  divine  tilings  in  such  thinkers  as  in  the  boy 
who  asked  his  father,  "  Father,  when  I  get  to 
heaven,  if  I  am  real  good,  w^ont  God  let  me 
come  down  here  on  Saturdays  and  play?" 
"What  a  dreadful  notion  of  heaven  that  boy 
had  !  And  w^iat  a  dreadful  notion  of  Christi- 
anity and  Christians  must  that  mind  have  that 
thinks  a  happy  life  on  earth  must  be  spent  in 
worldly  associations !  The  Church  of  Jesus 
has  within  it  all  the  elements  of  social  happi- 
ness. It  is  our  fault  if  we  do  not  utilize  them. 
The  social  evening,  that  centres  around  a 
Scripture  reading,  or  that  ends  with  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Heavenly  Father,  who  gives  us  the 


THE    SOUL'S    FRESH   AIR.  83 

social  happiness,  is  only  distasteful  to  the 
heart  that  has  been  weaned  away  from  God 
by  the  seductions  of  a  godless  society.  The 
sweetest  and  tenderest  relations  of  social  life 
would  be  nurtured  in  such  an  atmosphere,  in- 
stead of  the  formal,  selfish,  jealous,  hypocriti- 
cal excitements  which  have  so  largely  usurped 
and  monopoUzed  the  name  of  society.  The 
recreation  of  such  reunions  would  promote 
the  vigor  of  health  in  body  and  soul,  and  fit 
every  one  for  his  or  her  appropriate  duties  of 
the  family  and  home,  instead  of  making  those 
duties  insipid  and  onerous,  and  causing  them 
to  be  shghted  as  is  done  by  the  feverish 
nervousness  generated  in  the  false  social  ways 
of  the  world.  Family  divisions  would  be 
avoided,  and  all  that  dreariness  which  marks 
so  many  Christian  households  would  be  want- 
ing. The  family  ties  strengthened  would 
preserve  the  young  from  the  attractions  of  out- 
side and  questionable  amusements  which  now 
lure  milHons  to  their  ruin.  Does  the  question 
arise  in  any  mind,  "How  can  I,  already  en- 
tangled in  this  net  of  evil,  extricate  myself? 
I  am  now  fully  committed  to  this  false  society. 


84:  THE    HEALTHY    CHIIISTIAN. 

I  have  my  worldly  intimacies  and  all  the 
engagements  which  they  naturally  demand.  It 
were  comparatively  easy  for  one  beginning  life 
and  free  from  these  embarrassments  to  select 
a  Christful  circle  of  associates  and  friends,  but 
how  can  I?"  The  reply  is,  "You  are  to  culti- 
vate a  taste  you  have  vitiated^  That  requires 
determination  and  prayerful  attention.  More- 
over, in  all  the  ways  your  judgment  (not  your 
taste)  suggests,  you  are  to  withdraw  from  your 
mistaken  alhances,  substituting  for  them  those 
that  God  will  approve,  and  in  this  way  help 
to  reform  your  taste.  In  short,  you  have  a 
work  to  do.  The  change  will  not  come  hke 
the  opening  of  a  flower  or  the  fall  of  a  leaf, 
but  your  higher  powers  must  do  what  your 
higher  sense  recognizes  to  be  God's  will.  In 
such  a  work  the  Holy  Spirit  will  be  with  you 
and  give  you  success  in  the  end  and  joy  in 
the  way. 

"  He  that  walketh  with  wise  men  shall  be 
wise."  The  world's  people  are  not  wise,  and 
God's  people  ought  to  know  it.  Wisdom  has 
its  criterion  just  beyond  the  grave.  By  that 
let  us  be  readv  to  be  tested.     Let  us  be  as 


THE    SOUL*S   PRESH   AIR.  85 

singular  as  need  be,  if  only  v/ith  our  Lord 
Jesus  himself  it  can  be  said  of  us,  "  Wisdom 
is  justified  of  her  children."  The  company 
we  keep  is  an  index  of  the  heaven  we  seek. 
Do  we  expect  the  association  of  the  wise  here- 
after ?     We  shall  form  their  alliance  now. 

As  we  said  at  the  outset,  Christ  is  formed 
healthily  and  fully  in  him  alone  who  breathes 
the  air  of  Christian  intercourse. 


CHAPTEE   VI. 


THE    SOUL'S   exercise:    in    the 

FAMILY. 


•«Ex 


ercise  thyself  unto  godliness  : 
for  bodily  exercise*  profiteth 
little,  but  godliness  is  profit- 
able unto  all  things,  having 
promise  of  the  life  that  now 
is  and  of  that  which  is  to  come." 
1  Tim.   4  :  7,  8. 

^HEEE  may  be  to  the  Christian  a 
regular  feeding  upon  God's  word 
and  also  a  true  communion  with 
God's  people,  and  so  Christ  be  formed 
in  him  daily,  while  yet  there  may  be 
a  great  deficiency  in  his  spiritual  life.  Remem- 
ber the  figure.    The  body  may  feed  on  healthy 

*  I  take  Chrysostom's  and  De  Wette's  view  of  acjfianKTj 
yvtivaaia.  .    . 


THE   SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  87 

food  and  breathe  a  healthy  air,  but  unless  it 
exercise  itself  in  this  air,  the  assimilation  will 
be  imperfect  and  the  secretions  irregular.  So 
there  must  be  an  exercise  of  the  spiritual  man, 
an  experimental  use  of  his  graces,  if  the  word 
is  to  profit  him  as  it  should.  We  have  seen 
how  that  word  should  be  the  man  of  his  coun- 
sel and  be  loved  by  him  in  that  capacity,  and 
we  have  seen  how  his  intimacies  should  be 
formed  among  those  who  have  hke  precious 
faith  in  Jesus  with  himself.  Let  us  now  note 
the  necessity  and  character  of  that  exercise  of 
liis  gifts  by  which  his  true  spiritual  health  is 
promoted. 

Paul's  entreaty  to  Timothy,  which  we  have 
placed  at  the  head  of  this  chapter,  is  to  "  exer- 
cise  Jiimsd/ unio  godliness,"  to  act  in  his  Chris- 
tian life  as  the  athlete  acts  in  his  bodily 
training  and  development.  It  is  (so  to  speak, 
with  reference  to  the  Greek  word  gymnasia 
used  by  Paul)  a  charge  to  Timothy  to  make 
constant  use  of  spiritual  gymnastics.  The 
comparison  is  direct.  Bodily  exercise  is  a 
benefit,  but  only  for  a  short  time,  (see  margin,) 
but  the  exercise  of  the  soul  in  its  graces  is  for 


88  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

all  time  and  eternity.  The  liealth  of  the  soul 
is  far  more  important  than  the  health  of  the 
body;  and  all  we  do  here  to  promote  the 
health  of  the  soul  tells  upon  the  soul's  history 
for  ever.  This  is  the  apostle's  argument.  Let 
us  apply  it. 

I.  In  looking  at  the  necessity  of  spiritual 
exercise,  we  draw  from  the  body's  analogy 
that  exercise  conduces  to  health  by  quickening 
the  circulation,  dissipating  false  accretions, 
and  l)ringing  into  play  the  utmost  corners  of 
the  respiratory  organs.  Putting  this  into  a 
spiritual  translation,  we  have  this :  that  spir- 
itual exercise  conduces  to  spiritual  health  by 
making  the  presence  of  Christ  more  vividly 
and  intensely  felt,  (for  Christ  is  the  blood  of 
the  soul,)  by  shaking  off  morbid  views  and 
prejudices,  and  by  developing  the  social  Chris- 
tian hfe  to  the  fullest  degree,  for  the  respira- 
tion of  the  Christian  is  in  the  atmosphere  of 
Christian  communion.  We  may  add,  that 
where  these  results  follow  this  cause,  there  is 
also  a  grand,  healthy  appetite  for  the  word, 
the  food  of  the  soul.  But  let  us  look  at  each 
detail  a  moment.     ^ 


THE    SOUL'S    EXERCISE.  89 

1.  The  exercise  of  our  gifts  conduces  to 
spiritual  health  by  making  the  presence  of 
Christ  more  vividly  and  intensely  felt  and 
operative  in  the  soul. 

We  all  know  how  hearty  exercise  of  the 
body  makes  the  blood  tingle  to  the  very  ex- 
tremities with  a  glow  of  vigor.  We  feel  the 
oneness  of  our  frames  by  this  self-assertion  of 
the  physical  life  in  all  its  parts,  a  oneness  of 
cooperation  and  harmony,  and  not  a  oneness 
of  conflict  and  discord  as  that  which  pain 
might  give.  Just  so,  when  a  Christian  takes 
an  active  part  in  the  common  Christian  life 
and  ministers  to  it  with  the  free  use  of  his 
gifts,  the  very  needs  of  the  exercise  biing 
Christ  uppermost  to  his  thoughts.  His  de- 
pendence upon  his  Lord  for  strength  and 
enlightenment  is  felt,  and  the  sweet  comforts 
of  his  Lord's  help  is  his  rich  reward  at  every 
step.  There  is  no  such  bhss  to  the  soul  this 
side  heaven  as  the  consciousness  of  the  Re- 
deemer's full  presence.  It  is  not  the  pleasure 
of  a  beautiful  sentiment  striking  the  £esthetic 
perception,  nor  is  it  the  Archimedean  dehght 
of  discovery  before  a  new  glimjDse  of  intellec- 


90  THE   HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

tual  truth,  but  it  is  the  ineffable  joy  of  a  felt 
union  with,  the  living  God,  of  the  direct  and 
all-supplying  love  of  the  divine  Saviour.  It  is 
the  realization  toward  the  Maker  and  Euler  of 
all  of  the  phrase  which  grace  teaches  faith, 
"  I  am  my  beloved's  and  my  beloved  is  mine." 
It  is  beauty  and  truth  not  beheld,  but  lived. 
I  know  of  no  way  to  this  high  and  holy  reali- 
zation but  that  of  the  exercise  of  our  spiritual 
abihties  as  God  has  given  them.  Mere  con- 
templation will  not  do  it.  That  is  apt  to  make 
dreamers  and  to  deceive  the  soul  with  senti- 
mentalities. It  will  develop  self  rather  than 
Jesus.  In  the  look,  the  word,  the  act  for  our 
Lord  we  forget  self  and  receive  the  ^oy  of  the 
Lord. 

2.  The  exercise  of  our  gifts  conduces  to 
spiritual  health  by  shaking  off  morbid  views 
and  prejudices.  These  tokens  of  spiritual  dis- 
ease come  generally  from  the  ignorance  that 
attends  on  the  vis  inerticB  or  sluggishness  of 
the  soul.  The  analogies  of  truth  are  not  ob- 
served, the  interlacings  and  practical  modifi- 
cations of  doctrine  are  ignored,  and  hence 
Bome  notion  is  cultivated  at  the  expense  of 


THE   SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  91 

others,  and  a  Christian  cheats  himseU'  into 
beheving  the  redness  of  inflammation  to  be 
the  glow  of  health  and  a  morbid  swelHng  to 
be  the  fulness  of  vigor.  All  sorts  of  queer  and 
pernicious  doctrines  are  tenaciously  held — 
they  may  be  either  on  the  one  hand  in  the 
service  of  asceticism,  or  on  the  other  in  the 
service  of  self-indulgence.  The  diseased  symp- 
toms appear  in  both  directions,  perhaps  more 
commonly  in  the  latter.  Now,  what  the  patient 
wants  is  simple  exercise  for  Jesus — an  activity 
of  his  spiritual  functions — the  use  of  Christian 
society  not  only  to  receive  influences  there- 
from, but  to  bestow  influences  thereon ;  and 
when  his  soul  is  shaken  in  such  exercise,  as 
well  as  in  positive  action  toward  the  uncon- 
verted, his  sickly  excrescences  will  be  shaken 
off,  and  his  Christian  character  become  sym- 
metrical and  wholesome.  The  apostolic  char- 
acter is  formed  in  apostolic  occupation.  The 
mere  spiritual  cultivation  of  seK  is  the  way  to 
hinder  true  self-cultivation. 

3.  The  exercise  of  our  gifts  conduces  to 
spiritual  health  by  developing  the  social  Chris- 
tian life  to  the  fullest  degree.    The  sympathies 


92  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

are  aroused  from  tlieir  depths,  the  profoundest 
recesses  of  our  being  are  touched  by  the  yivid 
realizations  of  Christian  brotherhood,  and  the 
Christ-hfe  of  each  is  felt  on  each  in  heart- 
recognitions  that  are  like  the  intercourse  of 
heaven.     "We  have  noted  the  analogy  in  the 
deep  inbreathing  in  bodily  exercise  by  which 
the  remotest  lung-cell  is  distended  and  the 
life  is  in  fullest  motion  and  efficiency.     Here 
is  the  glory  of  true  Christian  society,  not  the 
sepulchral  formality  which  some  exhibit,  who 
make  Christian  society  a  conscience-task  as 
over  against  the  worldly  society  they  revel  in, 
but  that  which  warm-hearted  Christians  enjoy 
as  they  perceive  in  each  other  (with  all  tlieir 
faults)   the   lineaments   of  Jesus.     It  is  this 
which  gives  an  electric  thrill  to  life  and  makes 
society  a  heavenly  thing.    The  exercise  of  our 
spiritual  gifts  brings  us  inevitably  into  such  a 
social  experience.     The  sons  of  the  prophets 
go  in  companies.     If  you  speak  to  the  unre- 
generate,  you  wish  a  kindred  heart  to  beat 
with  yours  in  the  action ;  and  if  you  contem- 
plate the  goodness  of  God  in  any  of  its  aspects, 
you  would  have  another  heart  made  a  eon- 


THE   SOUL'S  EXEKCISE.  93 

noisseur  by  grace  to  double  your  joy  by  joining 
you  in  the  contemplation.  Activity  for  the 
Lord  will  always  bring  you  into  close  union 
with  the  people  of  the  Lord. 

Such,  then,  are  the  elements  of  the  necessity 
of  spiritual  exercise  for  spiritual  health.  We 
proceed  to  detail, 

11.  The  character  of  that  exercise. 

A  mistake  is  very  often  made  by  earnest 
Christians  in  supposing  that  activity  for  Christ 
must  always  be  in  one  of  the  more  apparent 
forms  of  teaching  a  class  or  making  missionary 
visits.  Now  these  two  forms  must  ever  be 
paramount  in  the  church's  view.  The  teach- 
ing of  God's  word  and  the  visitation  of  the 
destitute  are  specified  in  the  Scriptures  as 
potent  and  practicable  forms  of  glorifying 
Christ's  name.  Wherever  we  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  undertake  these  royal  styles  of 
Christian  exercise,  undoubtedly  we  should  use 
it.  The  number  we  can  influence  in  a  class, 
and  the  sympathy  we  can  show  to  the  suffer- 
ing, make  these  forms  of  Christian  work 
preferable  to  all  others.  But  Christian  exer- 
cise has  a  far  wider  application.     It  is  the 


94  THE   HEALTHY  CHBISTIAN. 

positive  exercise  of  every  grace  that  tends 
God-ward  or  to  complete  godliness.  The 
practice  of  forbearance,  gentleness,  meekness, 
self-restraint,  and  holy  earnestness  in  the  daily 
duties  and  occurrences  of  life,  in  the  family, 
in  the  haunts  of  commerce,  and  in  the  offices 
of  professional  activity  is  itself  a  wholesome 
spiritual  exercise.  But  there  is  much  more  to 
be  done  than  this.  Each  sphere  of  life  pre- 
sents its  own  claims  and  opportunities. 

1.  Are  you  a  parent  ?  Then  it  is  yours  to 
provide  systematically  for  the  education  of 
your  children  in  the  truth ;  and  here  is  a  field 
of  Christian  ejffort  directly  at  hand,  full  of 
advantage  to  yourself  as  to  others,  and  from 
which  no  possible  excuse  can  exempt  you. 
Conversation  with  your  children  upon  vital 
truths  of  revelation  with  endeavors  to  bring 
out  their  active  appreciation,  prayer  with  them 
that  will  ever  make  most  sacred  the  memory 
of  your  instructions  and  impress  upon  them 
the  sense  of  God's  presence  in  the  family, 
regular  instruction  from  God's  word,  so  that 
they  become  familiar  with  the  Bible  as  the 
book   of  the  heart — these  are  the  forms  of 


THE   SOUL'S   EXEKCISE.  95 

Christian  exercise  whicli  God  sets  before  you. 
To  the  mother  especially  do  these  home  minis- 
trations appertain.  She  is,  or  should  be, 
always  the  careful  executive  of  home.  Her 
eye  should  watch  all  the  details  of  the  family 
and  her  direct  influence  should  be  hourly  felt 
in  every  part  of  the  household.  As  famiharly 
acquainted  with  all,  arid  as  looked  to  for  coun- 
sel and  direction  by  all,  she  should,  as  the 
Lord's  representative,  see  that  the  Lord's 
truth  is  made  kno^ii  to  her  children  and  her 
servants.  Many  mothers  find  it  no  hardship 
to  dress  and  adorn  their  daughters  for  balls, 
to  initiate  them  into  all  the  hollow  cant  of 
ball-rooms,  receptions,  matindes,  and  operas, 
and  to  accompany  them  into  the  frivolous 
excitements  of  the  world,  while  they  have  no 
time  or  strength  to  teach  them  the  word  of 
God  or  to  train  them  as  disciples  of  Jesus. 
These  Christian  mothers  bring  many  a  woe  to 
the  Church  of  Christ.  If  they  had  no  chil- 
dren, we  might  pass  them  by  without  emphasis, 
but  through  their  children  they  are  operating 
with  formidable  power  upon  future  generations 
to  degrade  Christianity  and  defile  the  streams 


96  THE    HEALTHY   CHEISTIAN. 

of  truth.  The  true  disciple  of  the  Lord,  find- 
ing herself  at  the  head  of  a  family,  will  use 
time  and  talent,  first  of  all,  to  consecrate  her 
household  unto  Him ;  and  in  doing  this,  she 
will  find  very  soon  that  the  demands  of  the 
gay,  godless  world  must  be  flatly  resisted.  The 
difficulties  that  often  occur  with  Christian 
mothers  arise  from  a  want  of  perception  of 
this  fact :  that  a  training  for  the  world  and  a 
training  for  Christ  are  incompatible  ;  that  this 
point-blank  refusal  to  the  world  is  an  absolute 
necessity  for  the  spirituahty  of  the  family. 
The  mother  sees  all  her  acquaintances  edu- 
cating their  daughters  to  be  butterflies,  and 
she  must  do  the  same.  How  can  she  make 
herself  conspicuous  by  saying  "No"?  She 
must  go  mth  the  multitude  to  do  evil,  rather 
than  follow  Christ.  And  so  she  wastes  money, 
thought,  and  time  on  diamonds  and  dresses 
and  hair-ornaments,  and  acts  as  Satan's  agent 
to  destroy  her  daughter's  soul.  Her  con- 
science frequently  rebukes  her  with  neglect  of 
her  daughter's  higher  interests,  but  the  rebuke 
is  answered  by  a  hypocritical  sigh,  "O  dear 
me !   this  perplexing  life !     I  have  no  time  for 


THE   SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  97 

anything!"  Ah!  tell  the  truth,  Christian 
mother,  tell  the  truth  :  "  Plenty  of  time  for  the 
world ;  but  no  time  for  God ! "  You  have 
acted  as  though  you  felt  in  your  own  heart 
that  all  real  enjoyment  was  to  be  found  in  the 
excitements  of  the  world,  and  so  you  have 
taught  your  daughter  the  same  fearful  false- 
hood, until  religion  in  your  house  is  a  mockery, 
just  the  fag  end  of  legahsm  and  nothing  more. 
The  true  disciple  nips  this  mischief  in  the  bud. 
She  cuts  off  the  world.  She  finds  cheerful- 
ness and  joy  and  rational  amusement  in  a 
truly  Christian  life.  She  does  not  have  to  go 
to  unbelievers  to  ask  how  to  be  hapgy.  By 
cutting  off  the  world,  she  has  both  time  and 
taste  to  teach  her  family  the  ways  of  God. 
By  doing  this,  she  has  achieved  an  independ- 
ence with  all  its  peace  that  a  million  of  dollars 
could  not  give. 

A  practical  question  comes  up  here.  How 
are  we  to  act  toward  servants  of  a  false  and 
bigoted  faith  ?  The  answer  is,  to  use  discretion 
and  prayer.  "We  cannot  rudely  assault  preju- 
dices. We  ought  not  to  magnify  points  of 
difference.     We  ought  not  to  excite  suspicion. 

Healt  ly  ChriitU*.  7 


98  THE   HEALTHY   CHKISTIAN. 

"We  ought  not  to  meddle  with  subordinate 
details  of  their  creed  or  worship.  But  the 
mother  of  a  family  has  a  thousand  opportimi- 
ties  to  say  a  word  for  Jesus  to  the  seiTant 
attending  her,  without  arousing  any  personal 
church-feeling.  The  duties  of  trusting  the  Sa- 
viour for  his  pardon  and  of  seeking  his  Holy 
Spirit  might  be  often  urged  without  smj  dis- 
tinctive polemic  being  exhibited. 

Family  prayer  is  a  grand  centre  for  house- 
hold piety.  The  servants  of  a  different  faith 
may  not  appear,  and  they  should  never  be 
forced ;  but  the  family  proper  should  always 
be  gathered  at  this  holy  service.  And  it 
should  be  made  an  honest,  earnest,  touching 
service.  The  prayer  should  be  felt  by  the 
leader,  who  ought  to  be  the  father  of  the  fam- 
ily, and  the  Scripture  should  be  read  with 
reverence  and  attention.  Oh !  how  much  in- 
fluence for  life  goes  forth  from  the  family  altar ! 
The  children  carry  the  scene  before  their 
minds,  of  the  family  group  and  the  father 
reading  God's  word,  long  after  the  father's 
body  has  crumbled  into  dust,  and  the  mean- 
ing of  that  scene  is  a  constant  quickener  to 


THE   SOUL'S  EXERCISE.  99 

the  conscience.  The  excuses  for  the  neglect 
of  family  worship  are  all  vain.  "Want  of  time, 
want  of  ability,  tardiness  of  the  family  and 
interruption  of  visitors  are  the  pleas  most  fre- 
quently used.  They  scarcely  deserve  a  reply. 
Make  time,  as  you  would  for  eating.  Use  a 
written  prayer,  if  you  cannot  make  an  extem- 
poraneous one  ;  insist,  as  father  of  your  family, 
upon  a  punctual  attendance  of  all  the  mem- 
bers, and  invite  your  visitors  to  bow  the  knee 
with  you.  Never  let  an  excuse  find  itself  at 
home  in  your  religion  that  you  would  thrust 
out  of  your  business.  Sunday  may  be  made 
a  high  day  of  profit  to  your  family.  .Gather 
your  children  about  you  on  the  holy  day. 
Eead  together  with  them  from  the  "Word.  Let 
them  talk  with  you  freely  about  what  they 
read.  Encourage  their  questions.  Search 
with  them  for  answers,  if  they  are  not  at  hand, 
and  set  tliem  to  searching.  Children  are  soon 
delighted  with  this  looking  up  truth.  Then 
pray  and  sing  with  them ;  tell  them  stories  of 
your  own  Christian  experience  and  of  God's 
good  providence  to  you ;  tallc  to  them  of  the 
works  of  God  in  nature  and  grace ;  read  to 


100  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

them  tlie  narrative  of  some  true  life ;  explain 
some  picture  of  Bible  story;  and  so  most 
cheerily  and  happily  use  the  golden  opportu- 
nity of  the  day  of  rest  for  your  family's  lasting 
benefit  in  the  Lord.  Remember  that  no  Sun- 
day-school can  shoulder  a  parent's  responsi- 
bihty,  nor  can  it  wield  a  parent's  power.  The 
parent  was  commissioned  and  ordered  of  God 
to  conduct  the  spiritual  education  of  his  chil- 
dren when  God  firsrt  founded  and  organized 
his  church  upon  earth.  "Thou  shalt  teach 
my  words  diligently  unto  thy  children,  and 
shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thy 
house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and 
when  thou  Uest  down,  and  when  thou  risest 
up."  That  divine  ordinance  has  never  been 
abrogated.  There  is  in  it  a  principle  that 
time  never  can  destroy.  Here,  then.  Christian 
parents,  is  one  of  the  methods  of  the  exercise 
of  your  spiritual  gifts,  in  which  your  spiritual 
health  is  advanced.  Are  you  engaged  in  it  ? 
Is  the  truth  of  God  written  upon  the  posts  of 
your  house  and  on  your  gates  ?  Have  sacred 
associations  been  planted  by  you  in  the  fruit- 
ful soil  of  home,  whose  fruit  shall  refresh  your 


THE   SOUL'S  EXERCISE.  101 

cliilclren  to  all  generations  ?  If  you  have  been 
remiss  here,  for  the  sake  of  your  own  spiritual 
health  be  remiss  no  longer.  Kise  up,  as  a 
servant  of  God,  shake  off  lethargy  and  all 
excuses,  cut  off  all  associations  that  interfere, 
and  make  your  home  a  temple  of  the  Lord 
God  of  salvation.  Go  forward  in  mind  to  your 
last  hour  upon  earth  and  take  a  view  of  all 
your  excuses  fi'om  that  stand-point.  See  how 
trivial  they  appear.  Then  re-consecrate  your 
family  to  the  Lord.  Rejoice  in  the  spiritual 
work  that  this  lays  upon  you.  It  will  quicken 
your  whole  spiritual  being,  animate  your  faith, 
sharpen  your  appetite  for  the  truth,  and  give 
your  hfe  a  zest  you  never  knew  before.  You 
will,  moreover,  in  making  your  house  a  bethel, 
institute  the  strongest  practical  antidote  against 
the  world-poison  that  is  spread  through  the 
atmosphere  and  which  corrupts  the  very  vitals 
of  religion.  You  will  be  furnishing  to  your 
children,  not  an  ephemeral  pleasure  which 
will  at  last  disgust  the  soul  that  sought  it,  but 
an  abidiDg  joy  in  the  consciousness  of  a  family 
bound  together  by  heavenly  ties  and  dwelling 
for  ever  in  the  blessed  light  of  God. 


CHAPTEE   VII. 


THE  SOUL'S  exercise:    in 

CHURCH    RELATIONS. 

HE  cliurcli  of  Christ  has  Hfe  and 
organization,  and  is  thus  prepared 
for  growth.  Its  Author  and  Head 
expects  it  to  grow.  The  Spirit's  ex- 
hortations through  the  inspired  apos- 
tles have  this  growth  of  the  church  their  con- 
stant theme.  Its  continuance  on  earth  is  for 
the  very  purpose  of  growth.  The  only  true 
solution  of  the  postponement  of  judgment 
upon  a  guilty  world  is  found  in  the  increase 
of  Christ's  church,  and  the  development  of 
the  divine  seed.  Now  this  growth  of  the 
church  consists  of  two  parts,  the  furtherance 
of  grace  in  the  converted  soul,  and  the  con- 
quest of  new  souls  by  the  same  grace.     By 

t 


THE   SOUL'S   EXEECISE.  103 

the  former  the  church  grows  deeper,  by  the 
latter  it  grows  broader. 

To  whom  is  this  responsibiKty  of  growth  con- 
fided ?  Have  we  any  authority  for  selecting 
any  body  or  class  of  m^n  in  the  church  and 
placing  this  distinctive  duty  in  their  hands? 
Is  there  any  warrant  in  Scripture  for  count- 
ing the  officers  of  the  church  (whatever  name 
we  may  give  them)  as  the  exclusive  agents  of 
God  in  building  up  the  spiritual  Zion?  The 
love  of  power  on  one  hand,  and  the  love  of 
ease  on  the  other,  have  confirmed  this  error, 
so  that  over  a  large  part  of  nominal  Chris- 
tendom the  fallacy  is  working,  and  its  nat- 
ural result  is  found  in  a  ceremonial  and  for- 
mal church.  The  gospel  idea  of  the  church 
is  that  of  a  body,  where  every  member  has 
its  appropriate  function  in  building  up  the 
whole,  where  responsibihty  is  equally  shared 
by  all,  and  the  privileges  of  activity  equally 
enjoyed  by  all.  Diversity  of  gifts  and  hence 
diversity  of  operations  are  to  be  noted,  but 
nowhere  do  we  learn  that  there  is  to  prevail 
a  distinction  of  gifts  and  no  gifts.  The  same 
Sphit,  from  whom  comes  every  endowment, 


104         THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

moves  in  all.  The  power  to  work  for  Christ 
is  not  in  the  natural  faculties,  but  in  the 
Spirit.  The  most  imposing  natural  faculties 
are  nothing  without  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit 
is  powerful  to  accomplish  the  grandest  results 
where  the  natural  faculties  are  weak  and  con- 
temptible. These  truths,  which  are  the  very 
A  B  C  of  spiritual  knowledge,  have  to  be  reit- 
erated, when  we  are  discussing  the  subject 
of  Christian  work,  for  faith  seems  ever  to  fail 
in  accepting  them,  and  the  church  is  full  of 
idlers  because  of  the  excuse  of  the  lack  of 
natural  faculties. 

"We  have  already  addressed  heads  of  fam- 
ilies and  pointed  out  to  them  the  golden 
opportunities  God  has  set  before  them  in  the 
careful  training  of  their  children  and  house- 
holds in  the  truth.  We  now  take  a  wider 
range  of  remark,  and  call  upon  every  Chris- 
tian to  do  his  part  in  the  organization  of  be- 
lievers which  we  call  a  particular  church,  that 
is,  his  part  of  the  church  universal.  In  this 
assembly  of  believers  for  praise,  prayer,  in- 
struction, and  mutual  sympathy  and  edifica- 
tion, we  see  the  fairest  type  of  the  heavenly 


THE    SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  105 

society  that  can  be  found  on  earth.  This 
concourse  of  saints  is  not  only  a  banquet  of 
divine  love,  but  also  in  some  sort  what  the 
Greeks  called  an  "eranos"  or  feast  to  which 
each  guest  contributes  something.  It  is  first 
very  clear  that  no  one  man  can  pray  or  praise 
for  another.  If  one  leads,  all  should  follow 
audibly  or  inaudibly  as  the  case  may  be ;  but 
surely  there  is  no  worship  where  there  is  no 
following.  A  listless  demeanor  or  intermit- 
tent attention,  as  if  a  Christian  were  at  a 
spectacle,  is  a  complete  breach  of  divine  order 
and  a  prostitution  of  the  sacred  occasion.  We 
may  expect  the  world  to  exhibit  such  conduct 
in  the  assembly,  but  where  is  the  beUever's 
heart  that  he  should  imitate  the  world  in  this 
his  high  place  of  privilege  ?  The  same  course 
of  thought  holds  good  with  regard  to  the 
instruction  given  by  those  appointed  to  the 
work.  No  Christian  has  a  right  to  go  to  hear 
merely  a  pleasant  speech,  to  make  eloquence 
the  object  of  his  search,  in  going  to  the' 
congregation  of  the  saints.  There  is  fearful 
remissness  and  injurious  error  here.  Chris- 
tians are  seeking  sensation,  excitement,  amuse- 


106  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

ment,  wlien  tlie  one  thing  to  be  sought  is 
instruction  from  God's  word.  If  that  is  not 
given,  a  Christian  has  a  right  to  complain; 
but  when  that  is  given,  it  is  every  behever's 
duty  to  listen  reverently  not  to  man  but  to 
God,  and  so  receive  the  divine  seed  into  a 
good  and  honest  heart. 

There  is  another  exercise  in  the  assembly 
in  which  every  Christian  should  engage.  Giv- 
ing is  worship.  Jehoiada  placed  the  chest 
for  offerings  next  to  the  altar  of  sacrifice.  The 
apostle  ordered  collections  to  be  made  for  the 
poor  on  the  Lord's  day.  The  giving  to  the 
Lord  of  our  substance  has  always  been,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  church,  an  act  of  wor- 
ship and  a  means  of  grace.  No  Christian  has 
a  right  to  except  this  from  his  worship.  If 
a  widow  whose  whole  fortune  was  two  mites, 
which  made  together  one  farthing,  was  by 
our  Saviour  commended  for  her  pecuniary 
gift  to  the  Lord's  cause,  who  is  there  that 
can  reasonably  excuse  himself  on  the  ground 
of  poverty  ?  Christian  men  worth  thousands 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  contract  their 
whole  souls  into  mean  proportions,  and  rob 


THE   SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  107 

themselves  of  large  enjoyment  in  the  divine 
life  by  putting  their  ten  cents  into  the  plate, 
while  the  poor  excuse  themselves  altogether 
from  giving.  All  tliis  is  wrong.  The  pecu- 
niary gifts  of  God's  people  ought  to  be  multi- 
pUed  by  a  hundred,  and  then  the  giving  church 
would  be  richer  and  happier  for  its  gifts. 
Every  one  should  give,  whether  rich  or  poor. 
The  cent  of  the  straitened  is  as  much  needed 
for  worship  as  the  dollar  of  the  richer.  The 
poor  man  should  no  more  omit  giving  be- 
cause of  his  poverty,  than  an  iUiterate  man 
should  omit  praying  because  of  his  grammar. 
"When  we  consider  giving  as  worship,  then  we 
see  this  matter  in  its  true  relations.  Exercise 
unto  godhness  is  incomplete  without  a  Uberal 
hand  in  God's  name. 

But  besides  these  common  acts  of  worship 
in  the  assembly,  there  are  others  that  apper- 
tain to  the  more  general  life  of  the  church. 
Visiting  the  poor  and  suffering  is  expressly 
recorded  by  the  Spirit  as  a  mark  of  pure 
rehgion.  Our  Saviour  emphasizes  this  in  his 
picture  of  the  judgment.  How  is  it  that  half 
the  Christians  in  the  world  never  think  of  this 


108  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

exercise  ?  How  many  leave  it  to  benevolent 
societies,  or  agents,  or  ministers,  forgetting 
that  it  is  a  personal  duty  that  no  one  can  set 
aside  without  directly  disobeying  the  Lord 
Jesus.  God  means  your  graces  to  grow  by 
your  contact  with  the  suffering,  by  your  min- 
istry to  the  sick  and  sorrowing,  by  your  sym- 
pathizing relief  brought  opportunely  to  the 
garret  of  the  destitute.  How  can  you  refuse 
God's  method  and  prosper?  Are  you  afraid 
that  such  visiting  will  oblige  you  to  give 
money?  Then  let  that  be  an  argument  for 
your  going.  You  need  just  that  grace.  Do  n't 
say  you  have  no  means  to  give,  when  you  can 
wear  rings  and  necklaces  and  diamonds.  Try 
the  virtue  of  seUing  a  diamond  pin  and  giving 
the  proceeds  to  the  needy,  making  the  poor 
widow's  heart  to  leap  with  joy.  It  may  be 
the  grandest  step  in  Christianity  you  ever 
took,  since  you  were  converted.  When  you 
have  learned  how  to  visit  the  afflicted  system- 
atically, and  how  to  comfort  them  with  sub- 
stantial kindness  personally  in  the  name  of 
Jesus,  you  will  have  opened  a  new  fountain 
of   deUght  for  yourself,   such  as  you    little 


THE   SOUL'S    EXEBCISE.  109 

dreamed  of  in  the  days  of  your  selfish  isola- 
tion. You  will  look  more  like  Jesus  than 
you  ever  did  before.  Go  modestly,  not  as  if 
you  were  a  superior  going  to  see  an  inferior, 
for  you  are  not;  and  go  cheerfully,  in  the 
love  of  the  Master,  and  go  tenderly  with  con- 
cern for  the  sick  or  sad  one,  and  go  with  the 
Scripture  on  your  lips  and  a  purse  ia  your 
pocket,  and  go  calmly  and  not  in  a  hurry, 
remembering  that  this  too  is  worship.  Let 
every  Christian  engage  in  this  personal  visit- 
ing, man  and  woman.  I  think  if  this  rule  of 
Christ  were  obeyed,  it  would  teach  us  to  be 
less  extravagant  in  our  expenditures  for  self- 
ish ends,  to  be  less  dashing  in.  our  costume, 
to  be  less  thoughtful  for  our  petty  pleasures, 
in  short,  it  would  raise  us  to  a  higher,  nobler 
level,  nearer  the  angels  and  nearer  to  God. 
Suppose  we  try  it  just  for  a  month,  and  see 
how  it  results. 

Another  form  of  Christian  exercise  unto 
godliness  is  found  in  teaching  the  word.  The 
error  that  ordained  men  are  alone  to  teach 
God's  word  is  one  of  Satan's  admirable  de- 
vices to  block  the  wheels  of  evangelization. 


110  THE    HEALTHY   CHEISTIAN. 

There  are  indeed  some  wlio  by  their  acquire- 
ments are  fitted  for  a  pecuhar  (and  in  some 
respects  a  higher)  style  of  teaching.  They 
have  studied  carefully,  and  under  experienced 
guides,  the  original  languages  of  Scripture, 
and  have  thoroughly  digested  the  statements 
of  revelation  in  whatever  of  system  divine 
things  are  capable  of  sustaining  to  finite  intel- 
lects. On  these  men  the  appointed  agents  of 
the  church  put  their  seal  of  approbation,  that 
the  church  may  have  confidence  in  them  as 
called  of  God  to  be  pastors  and  teachers. 
But  this  by  no  means  exhausts  the  teaching 
of  the  church.  There  is  to  be  teaching  in 
the  family,  and  teaching  out  of  the  family, 
whether  it  be  in  the  Sunday-school  or  neigh- 
borhood visiting.  The  Bible  is  to  be  opened 
and  its  precious  promises  spread  out  before 
the  child,  the  sick  patient,  or  the  friend  of 
whatever  sort;  and  for  this  high  function 
every  converted  soul  is  capable.  It  needs  no 
Greek  or  Hebrew,  nor  does  it  require  "the 
laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  presbytery." 
It  demands  only  a  pious  heart  and  an  over- 
flowing love.     When  you  have  read  a  portion 


THE    SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  Ill 

of  the  word,  and  pondered  it,  and  been  illu- 
mined and  warmed  by  the  new  rays  of  truth, 
store  up  your  treasure  for  another's  benefit, 
and  seek  an  opportunity  tb  enrich  a  friend.  Let 
no  Christian  fail  to  be  a  teacher  of  the  word 
in  some  form  and  way  as  regularly  and  sys- 
tematically as  possible.  The  converse  of  the 
question  in  the  second  of  Eomans,  is  in  per- 
fect analogy  with  the  gospel  scheme :  "  Thou 
that  art  taught  thyself,  teachest  thou  not  an- 
other?" The  knowledge  you  possess  of  the 
Word  of  God  is  enough  to  enlighten  many  a 
dark  heart.  Can  you  rightfully  hide  your  light 
under  a  bushel-measure  ?  When  God  entered 
your  heart,  did  he  not  made  you  a  truth- 
bearer?  What  have  you  to  show  for  your 
commission?  Where  is  the  work  you  have 
wrought?  To  whom  have  you  taught  the 
word  of  God?  With  what  child  of  sin  or 
of  sorrow  have  you  read  the  pages  that  min- 
ister heavenly  comfort  and  instruction  ?  Has 
not  your  Christian  life  been  wholly  or  greatly 
defective  in  this  duty?  Can  you  not  trace 
many  of  your  own  symptoms  of  spiritual  un- 
healthmess  to  this  lack?     Is  not  your  want 


112  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

of  interest  in  and  comfort  from  the  Bible 
owing  to  your  failure  in  making  it  known  to 
others  ?  The  Sunday-school  teacher  occupies 
a  position  of  grow^th.  He  receives  quite  as 
much  as  he  gives ;  I  think  more.  We  cannot 
overestimate  the  value  of  well-ordered  Sun- 
day-schools for  the  training  of  both  old  and 
young  in  the  church.  And  what  is  true  emi- 
nently of  the  well-ordered  Sunday-school  is 
true  of  every  form  of  systematic  Bible  instruc- 
tion. It  is  not  only  in  the  preparation  that 
is  necessary  for  the  lesson,  Avhich  increases 
the  knowledge  of  divine  things,  but  it  is  in 
the  contact  with  a  hving  soul  receiving  great 
truths  that  the  teacher  obtains  his  own  bene- 
fit. The  truths  are  enlarged  in  his  own  soul 
as  he  sees  them  impressing  another;  and  his 
sympathy  runs  with  the  pupil  by  awakening 
his  own  impressions  anew. 

Another  form  of  Christian  exercise  imto 
godliness  is  found  in  utterance  at  the  prayer- 
meeting.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  any 
man  can  arise  and  speak  to  edification  among 
God's  people  without  due  preparation.  The 
notion  that  any  man  is  hke  a  fountain,  and 


THE    SOUL'S  EXERCISE.  113 

it  needs  only  the  turning  of  a  fawcet  and  the 
stream  of  useful  speech  will  flow,  is  a  mis- 
taken one.  The  men  who  appear  to  speak 
impromjotu  and  with  ease,  are  those  who  have 
thoroughly  prepared  themselves.  This  thor- 
ough preparation  is  the  secret  of  their  ease  in 
utterance.  The  fault  in  our  prayer-meetings 
is  that  Christians  do  not  prepare  themselves 
to  speak  to  edification,  and  hence  do  not  offer 
a  word.  Their  inability  to  speak  they  think 
to  be  a  natural  lack,  and  hence  they  leave 
the  duty  to  others,  when  their  inabihty  is 
simply  owing  to  their  neglect  of  preparation. 
What  is  to  be  prepared  ?  Not  an  exhaustive 
essay.  Not  a  sermon.  Not  a  fine  piece  of 
rhetoric.  If  it  were  any  of  these,  inability 
might  be  pleaded  rightfully  on  the  part  of 
many.  But  that  which  is  to  be  prepared  is 
simply  a  fact-statement,  as  you  would  tell  it 
to  a  friend,  a  word  of  personal  experience,  a 
view  personally  enjoyed  of  some  passage  of 
Scripture,  anything  that  is  brief  and  simple 
and  calculated  to  warm  or  cheer  the  hearts  of 
believers.  If  every  Christian  felt  his  duty  in 
this  respect,  the  leader  of  the  meeting  would 
8 


114  THE    HEALTHY   CHKISTIAN. 

not  have  to  summon  by  name  any  particnlar 
member  to  guide  the  thoughts  of  the  assem- 
bly, but  only  to  designate  which  one  of  those 
that  offered  should  take  his  turn  to  discharge 
this  duty.  This  very  readiness  would  add 
new  Hfe  to  the  meeting,  and  increase  its  effi- 
ciency in  all  hearts.  Diffidence  in  speaking 
to  a  hundred  persons  may  be  overcome  by 
conscientious  practice.  Let  the  first  words 
be  few,  and  the  simpler  the  better,  and  let 
the  desire  be  to  do  one's  part  towards  edify- 
ing the  church.  The  diffidence  will  grow  less 
at  every  utterance.  Of  course  I  do  not  refer 
to  those  exceptional  cases  where  nervous  dis- 
ease is  a  very  just  excuse  from  this  form  of 
Christian  exercise.  In  all  these  exercises  of 
exhortation  or  instruction,  brevity,  point  and 
simphcity  must  be  insisted  on,  and  these  qual- 
ities will  make  it  an  easier  duty  to  the  con- 
scientious soul?  "Where  many  are  thus  ready, 
we  have  the  best  guarantee  against  untimely 
dissertations,  irrelevant  harangues  and  empty 
wordiness,  w^hich  ought  to  have  no  part  in 
Christian  assemblies. 
Now,  my  fellow-believers,  I  have  put  before 


THE   SOUL'S  EXERCISE.  115 

you  some  of  the  ways  in  which  the  Lord  calls 
each  of  us  to  exercise  himself  unto  godliness 
in  the  midst  of  his  church  on  earth.  It  re- 
mains for  us  to  apply  the  truth  by  asking 
each  himself  the  question,  "Am  I  practising 
this  system  of  spiritual  strengthening?  Am 
I  taking  this  divinely-appointed  means  to  pre- 
serve the  vigorous  vitality  of  my  heaven-bom 
Hfe?" 

One  of  the  most  frequent  and  plausible 
arguments  against  the  practical  adoption  of 
these  various  forms  of  Christian  exercise  is 
the  want  of  time.  The  mother's  domestic 
duties,  and  the  father's  business  duties  are 
all-absorbing  and  leave  no  time  for  visiting  or 
teaching  the  word,  or  preparing  edifying  words 
for  the  prayer-meeting,  even  if  they  allow  time 
for  attending  that  meeting.  The  answer  to 
this  favorite  argument  is  perfectly  simple.  It 
is  that  our  eternal  interests  are  superior  to 
all  else,  and  that  any  plan  of  life  which  leaves 
them  out  and  neglects  their  furtherance  ac- 
cording to  God's  appointments,  is  radically 
WTong  and  cannot  receive  God's  blessing. 
Moreover,  I  know  active  business  men  and 


116  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

excellent  house-keeping  ladies  who  6.0  find 
abundant  time  to  attend  to  all  these  spiritual 
exercises,  and  to  whom  the  visitation  of  the 
poor,  and  sick,  and  afflicted  is  a  most  happy 
reHef  from  their  domestic  or  business  duties. 
And,  still  again,  those  who  make  the  excuse 
have  plenty  of  time  to  visit  their  friends,  to 
read  their  favorite  books,  to  do  a  large  amount 
of  amateur  shopping,  and  to  take  their  drives 
and  excursions.  The  want  of  time  is  not  an 
excuse  we  shall  dare  to  use  before  the  judg- 
ment-seat of  Christ.  Our  convictions  there 
will  be  too  clear  that  selfishness  occupied  the 
time  that  the  Lord  wanted. 

Eemember  what  we  have  before  shown, 
that  regular  exercise  of  our  spiritual  man  is 
as  necessary  for  spiritual  health  as  our  bodily 
exercise  is  necessary  for  the  right  and  sound 
use  of«our  physical  functions;  that  revealed 
truth  received  into  the  soul  by  faith,  and  nur- 
tured by  Christian  companionship,  must  also 
be  used  in  positive  Christian  activity  toward 
others,  if  Christ  is  to  be  completely  developed 
in  us ;  and  this,  if  we  are  Christ's,  should  be 
our  one  aim. 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 


THE    SOUL'S     EXERCISE  :      IN     THE 
WORLD    WITHOUT. 

oAVING  considered  two  spheres 
of  opportunity  for  the  regular  ex- 
ercise of  our  Christian  graces,  the 
one  in  the  family  and  the  other  in 
connection  with  church  organization, 
we  turn  now  to  a  third,  that  which  is  presented 
in  our  business  life.  It  will  be  borne  in  mind 
that  this  exercise  is  unto  godliness — ^is  a  means 
ordained  of  God  for  the  development  of  truth 
in  us,  to  reject  which  is  to  consent  to  a  stunted 
spiritual  condition  with  all  its  consequences. 
Let  this  thought  accompany  all  our  investiga- 
tions upon  the  subject. 

Our  hfe  on  earth  is  one  and  our  character 
is  one.     We  cannot  separate  our  social  life 


118  THE  HEALTHY   CHKISTIAN. 

from  our  domestic  life,  or  our  business  life 
from  either.  The  principles  which  operate  in 
one  will  operate  in  all.  Selfishness  and  trick- 
ery in  business  will  be  found  in  the  family  as 
equally  selfishness  and  deceit.  A  man  may 
put  on  two  faces,  but  he  can  have  only  one 
heart.  As  everything  goes  to  make  up  our  one 
character  in  life,  so  our  one  character  will  act 
upon  everything  in  life.  All  exceptions  to  this 
rule  are  phenomenal  only.  A  man  who  acts 
the  tyrant  in  his  family  may  appear  to  be 
affable  and  yielding  in  commercial  ckcles,  but 
it  is  only  in  appearance.  The  iron  hand  wears 
a  velvet  glove  for  policy's  sake.  Sometimes, 
perhaps,  his  cunning  is  off  its  guard,  and  the 
tyrant  appears.  Such  slips  form  the  eccen- 
tricities of  some  men  that  are  so  inexplicable 
to  their  fellows.  A  godly  man  can  no  more 
shut  out  his  business  life  from  his  rehgion 
than  the  sun  can  refuse  to  shine  in  one  direc- 
tion. When  it  is  attempted,  the  religion  is 
proved,  by  that  very  fact,  to  be  of  a  very  low 
order.  It  is  like  a  stream  in  the  desert  that 
the  sands  absorb  before  it  can  fertilize.  I 
know  this  type  of  strange  Christianity  is  found. 


THE    SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  119 

There  are  men  wlio  will  meet  with  missionary 
boards  and  occupy  positions  of  responsibility 
in  the  church,  and  yet  go  down  to  their  oflSce, 
store,  or  counting-room  as  thorough  heathen, 
never  saying  a  word  to  their  clerks,  or  before 
their  clerks,  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  impressing  their  clerks  and 
their  customers  with  a  sense  of  their  hardness 
and  unpitying  severity,  showing  no  sympathy 
or  tenderness  toward  any,  acting  the  part  in 
real  life  of  Shylock  or  Ralph  Nickleby.  What 
must  be  the  eifect  of  such  a  life  upon  the 
world  in  its  estimate  of  evangelical  rehgion? 
For  the  world  does  not  read  the  Bible.  It 
reads  men.  It  sees  the  grand  and  leading 
firm  of  Messrs.  Driver  &  Holdem.  Mr. 
Driver  built  a  large  church  in  Driverville.  Ho 
furnished  the  parsonage  of  the  city  church,  of 
which  he  is  a  member.  He  gave  the  Sunday- 
school  a  noble  library.  He  is  chairman  of 
the  board  for  providing  the  destitute  with  the 
gospel.  Alas  !  his  gifts  have  harmed  the 
church  more  than  benefited  it.  They  have 
made  the  Sunday-school  superintendent  and 
the  church  officers  and  the  trustees  and  the 


120  THE   HEALTHY    CHKISTIAN. 

minister  to  close  their  eyes  and  mouths  against 
his  worldliness,  and  so  to  join  hands  with  it. 
They  always  have  a  pleasant  smile  for  Mr. 
Driver,  although  they  know  that  he  has  just 
been  engaged  in  a  large  "cornering  operation." 
And  as  for  Mr.  Holdem,  the  partner,  he  is  the 
man  who  makes  such  a  beautiful  prayer ;  who 
instituted  the  daily  prayer  meeting,  and  sends 
the  "  Journal  of  Missions  "  gratuitously  to  ten 
thousand  persons.  He  is  also  the  man  that 
broke  the  heart  of  a  simple-minded  Christian 
man  from  Kansas,  who  came  to  his  store  to 
ask  aid  for  a  struggling  band  of  Christ's  peo- 
ple there,  by  thrusting  him  violently  out  of  his 
premises.  He  is  the  man  who  took  advantage 
of  the  usury  laws  to  gi.ve  his  creditors  the 
go-by.  He  is  the  man  who  sells  property  to 
weak  purchasers,  so  as  to  foreclose  and  regain 
the  property  with  the  first  payment  as  clear 
gain.  All  Wall^street  knows  Messrs.  Driver 
&  Holdem ;  and  although  they  are  worth  five 
milUons  at  least,  all  Wall  street  watches  them 
as  carefully  in  any  business  transaction  as  it 
would  watch  a  state-prison  graduate. 

What  idea,  I  ask,  will  Wall  street  have  of 


THE    SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  121 

the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  it  sees  that 
church  through'*the  firm  of  Driver  &  Holdem  ? 
And  what  real  benefit  do  such  men  confer 
upon  the  church  by  their  gifts,  given  as  they 
are  to  bhnd  others  and  their  own  consciences 
to  their  own  heathenish  character?  It  is 
high  time  that  the  church  should  prefer  strait- 
ness  and  poverty  rather  than  entangling  alli- 
ances with  such  traitors  to  the  truth. 

"We  have  very  strong  doubts  whether  Dri- 
ver &  Holdem  were  ever  converted.  We  are 
forced  to  beheve  them  hypocrites  and  nothing 
else.  But  there  are  others,  of  whose  underly- 
ing faith  in  Christ  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt 
— men  .who  have  given  satisfactory  evidence, 
in  crises  of  their  lives,  that  they  saw  the 
unseen  and  eternal.  But  these  men  leave  all 
manifestation  of  their  religion  outside  of  their 
places  of  business.  They  are  like  automata, 
moving  mechanically  through  their  routine, 
but  all  soulless  in  the  presence  of  their  business 
companions.  They  defend  their  conduct  by 
saying,  "  Only  business  in  business  hours."  I 
take  issue  with  their  axiom.  Where  did  they 
get  it?     Is  it  in  God's  word?     Is  there  not 


122  THE   HEALTHY  CHRISTIAN. 

another  sort  of  axiom  in  that  blessed  volume, 
that  says,  "  Whether  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  ivhat- 
ever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God  "?  That 
axiom  tells  me  that  my  godliness  should  ooze 
out  at  every  pore  of  my  daily  duties,  when 
I'm  selling  silks  or  buying  molasses,  not  by 
assumed  cant  and  weak  platitudes,  but  by  an 
honest,  manly,  Christian  style  of  doing  busi- 
ness that  would  sparkle  with  its  true  courtesy 
and  consideration,  and  so  commend  the  Chris- 
tianity that  lay  behind  it.  A  man  of  that 
stamp  would  know  when  to  throw  out  the  word 
in  season  for  God ;  when  to  correct  firmly  evil 
language  or  conduct ;  when  to  encourage  a 
desponding  clerk;  when  to  have  a  private 
interview  with  some  one  dependent  upon  him 
and  whom  he  could  counsel  as  a  father.  Such  a 
one  would  have  no  lack  of  opportunity  to  let 
his  Ught  shine  in  his  place  of  business  without 
harming  an  iota  of  his  commercial  or  monetary 
interests. 

In  some  of  the  large  Christian  firms  of 
England,  where  scores  and  hundreds  of  clerks 
are  employed,  regular  morning  prayers  are 
established,  and  the  head  of  the  house  reads 


TPIE   SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  123 

and  expounds  a  passage  of  Scripture  daily  to 
all,  and  on  Sunday  lie  has  tliem  all  with  their 
families  in  a  Sunday  evening  Bible-class.  This 
is  a  noble  example.  The  relations  thus  estab- 
lished between  employers  and  employed  are 
of  the  right  sort.  Holy  sympathies  are  created 
and  nurtured  between  them,  and  they  are  all 
led  in  their  business  to  serve  the  Lord.  Who 
will  brave  public  opinion  and  dare,  for  Christ's 
sake,  to  begin  such  a  custom  here  ?  We  are 
too  great  cowards  to  be  Christians.  We  are 
always  wondering  what  the  world  will  say; 
and  if  w^e  surmise  that  it  would  ridicule  a  pro- 
jected action  on  the  side  of  God  and  truth,  we 
take  care  to  be  very  quiet,  perhaps  hopmg 
secretly  that  some  one  else  will  do  it  and  meet 
the  brunt,  and  then  we  can  safely  follow.  Why 
should  it  not  be  known  and  said  of  our  Chris- 
tian merchants,  tradesmen,  and  mechanics, 
"These  men  fear  God  and  serve  him  in  all 
their  business.  An  atmosphere  of  truth  and 
godliness  surrounds  their  lives  "  ?  Is  not  this 
the  only  reputation  a  Christian  ought  to  have 
in  the  world  ?  Why  should  we  have  to  search 
the  church  records  to  discover  if  A.  B.  is  a 


124  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

Christian  ?  Is  that  letting  one's  Hght  shine  ? 
Is  that  presenting  oneself  a  living  sacrifice  to 
God  ?  Is  that  standing  with  one's  loins  girt 
about  with  truth?  Oh,  how  unlike  these 
Scriptural  portraits  of  the  true  Christian  are 
those  who  exclude  their  religion  from  their 
places  of  business !  "We  forget  that  Christi- 
anity is  not  a  performance,  but  a  life.  If  it 
were  a  performance,  we  might  crowd  the  work 
into  certain  hours  or  days  and  leave  the  rest 
free.  But  it  is  a  life,  and  if  the  life  is  vigorous 
and  healthy,  it  cannot  be  eclectic  in  its  exhi- 
bitions. It  must  overflow.  The  Christian 
business  men  we  have  just  described  are  not 
pointed  out  by  the  commercial  world  as  cheats 
and  large-scale  robbers.  They  do  not  belong 
to  the  class  of  Driver  &  Holdem.  But  their 
influence  on  Christianity  is  perhaps  quite  as 
evil.  Those  worldly  men  who  happen  to 
Imow  their  church-membership  must  consider 
religion,  as  seen  in  them,  a  very  subordinate 
and  insignificant  affair.  It  is  by  no  means  as 
important  as  business  and  money.  And  so 
these  worldly  men  are  supported  in  their 
theory  of  putting  off  all  thoughts  of  personal 


THE   SOUL'S   EXEECISE.  125 

reUgion  to  a  dying  day.  Those  who  are  not 
aware  of  the  professed  Christianity  of  these 
ashamed  behevers  are  injured  in  another  way. 
They  see  their  moral  and  upright  hves,  and 
conclude  that  Christianity  is  of  no  more  use 
than  a  fifth  wheel  to  a  coach.  "  Here  are  men 
as  good  as  anything  we  wish  to  see.  They  do 
not  he  and  steal.  They  are  honorable  men 
and  keep  their  engagements.  They  are  re- 
spected by  all,  and  trusts  are  reposed  in  them 
to  any  extent.  What  more  does  man  want?" 
Now  the  real  foundation  of  the  commercial 
uprightness  of  these  men  is  in  their  Christian 
faith.  Men  may  be  commercially  upright  who 
are  not  Christians,  (although,  generally,  that 
sort  of  uprightness  will  not  bear  a  very  rigid 
microscopic  examination,)  but  in  these  cases 
to  which  we  refer  the  correct  commercial  life 
is  really  the  result  of  Christian  faith,  and  it  is 
disloyalty  to  God  to  hide  that  connection.  It 
confirms  multitudes  in  endeavoring  to  go  on 
in  life  without  God.  It  is  a  tacit  testimony 
for  irrehgion.  When  we  think  how  much  of  a 
man's  life  is  spent  in  his  place  of  business,  it 
is  starthng  to  think  of  this  exclusion  of  rehgion 


126  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

from  tlie  business  field.  It  is  virtually  banish- 
ing religion  from  three-quarters  of  one's  waking 
life.  We  can  see  at  a  glance  how  fearfully 
prejudicial  it  must  be  to  one's  own  rehgious 
experience;  what  a  desert  it  must  make  of 
personal  piety.  Imagine  a  tree  with  the  sap 
removed  from  three-quarters  of  it,  or  a  man's 
body  with  all  signs  of  life  confined  to  a  quar- 
ter of  it.  What  kind  of  vigor  would  there  be 
in  that  tree  or  in  that  man? 

I  know  there  rises  up  as  a  general  objection 
to  the  visible  presence  of  a  religious  life  in 
business  the  fear  of  the  charge  of  hypocrisy. 
The  fear  of  hypocrisy  is  a  very  right  one.  We 
ought  to  dread  hypocrisy.  It  is  the  worst  of 
sins.  It  is  the  he  unto  God  as  unto  man. 
Our  Saviour  used  words  of  fierce  indignation, 
not  against  the  publicans  and  harlots,  but 
against  the  hypocrites.  But  the  fear  of  hypoc- 
risy and  the  fear  of  the  charge  of  hypocrisy  are 
different  things.  We  ought  not  rashly  and 
unreasonably  to  lay  ourselves  open  to  a  false 
charge,  but  sometimes  we  are  obliged  to,  if  we 
would  perform  our  duty  before  God.  Daniel's 
praying  might  have  been  looked  upon  as  sheer 


THE  SOUL'S  EXERCISE.  127 

hypocrisy,  its  motive  being  considered  a  desire 
to  show  his  independence  of  the  king;  but 
that  possibility  would  not  stop  Daniel's  pray- 
ing. Doubtless  many  charge  Christians  with 
hypocrisy  in  going  to  church,  but  that  charge 
will  hot  warrant  a  rehnquishment  of  this  high 
duty.  If  introducing  Uving  religion  into  your 
place  of  business  is  going  to  bring  upon  you 
the  charge  of  hypocrisy,  stand  the  charge  hke 
a  Christian,  so  long  as  it  is  a  lying  charge,  so 
long  as  you  know  you  are  not  a  hypocrite.  I 
know  there  is  a  cheap  twaddle  that  goes  for 
rehgion  with  some  shallow  pates,  or  shrewd 
pates,  as  the  case  may  be.  It  is  yery  disgust- 
ing and  every  manly  heart  is  repelled  by  it. 
But  do  not  reject  the  pure  gold  because  of  the 
counterfeit.  Be  discreet,  use  common  sense, 
be  natural,  and  then  be  bold  and  independent. 
Do  what  you  know  to  be  right  in  the  sight  of 
God,  and  force  those  around  you  into  respect. 
Let  the  community  as  Httle  expect  you  to  be 
a  heathen  in  your  store  as  in  your  church. 

I  have  looked  on  the  influence  of  such  exer- 
cise of  your  spiritual  life  upon  your  own  per- 
sonal growth  in  gi'ace,  for  that  is  our  subject 


128  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

— the  means  of  developing  the  healthy  Chris- 
tian. My  allusions  to  influence  and  opinion 
without  have  been  only  to  illustrate  this  sub- 
jective condition.  If  it  were  not  for  this 
circumscription  of  subject,  it  would  be  easy  to 
show  the  immense  importance  of  a  positive 
Christianity  in  our  business  men  in  business 
hours  for  the  spread  of  the  truth.  I  could 
enlarge  on  the  channels  opened  by  commer- 
cial intercourse  for  gospel  ciuTents,  and  the 
power  of  young  men  nurtured  under  such 
commercial  training  for  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  the  race.  But  my  design  precludes  this 
direction  of  thought.  It  is  the  subjective  in- 
fluence we  are  now  studying.  We  are  noting 
that  the  law  of  Christian  growth  forbids  the 
repressing  of  the  exercise  of  any  of  the  divine 
gifts,  at  the  peril  of  the  spiritual  welfare ;  that 
a  Christian  who  withholds  the  demonstration 
of  his  faith  in  any  one  department  of  his  Hfe 
thereby  diseases  his  spiritual  nature,  dishon- 
oring God  while  he  reduces  his  own  capacity 
for  the  higher  joys  of  the  life  of  faith. 
The  Lord  as  our  shepherd  leads  us  into 
green  pastures  and  beside  waters  of  rest,  but 


THE   SOUL'S  EXERCISE.  129 

our  perversity  makes  the  landscape  a  desert. 
We  move  among  untried  opportunities  and 
have  no  right  to  murmur  at  our  ban-en  and 
unsatisfactory  experience.  The  business  hfe 
of  the  Christian  might  be  to  him  a  well-sprmg 
of  spiritual  refreshing.  He  might  identify  it 
with  all  that  is  holy  and  divine.  Every  busi- 
ness connection  might  contain  a  golden  thread 
of  godly  recognition,  and  the  purest  and  most 
truly  religious  associations  might  cluster  around 
the  buyings  and  sellings  of  trade.  It  is  be- 
cause Christian  men  have  so  long  worked  upon 
an  opposite  and  false  principle  that  this  propo- 
sition looks  fairly  startling.  If  they  begin 
again  from  God  to  mould  their  business  lite 
anew,  they  would  see  that  there  is  no  conflict 
between  rehgion  and  business,  as  they  have 
practically  taught,  but  that  the  rehgion  of 
Jesus  sanctifies  business  and  belongs  to  it,  as 
much  as  to  the  social  and  domestic  sides  of 
human  life.  And  when  they  have  made  this 
discovery,  they  will  then  make  the  still  more 
astonishing  discovery  that  business  sanctifies 
tliem,  God  has  called  no  disciple  to  a  duty 
that  is  not  sanctifying,  if  used  aright.     If  avo 

neJthyChilsti.HD.  9 


130  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

are  not  growing  spiritually  from  our  daily 
occupations,  we  may  be  sure  that  we  are  very 
wrong  somewhere;  we  are  divorcing  them 
from  the  spiritual  hfe,  and  so  virtually  making 
our  business  a  clandestine  dealing  with  the 
enemy.  It  is  such  a  false  system  which  makes 
some  Christians  say,  under  stress  of  conscience, 
"  I  'm  going  to  keep  in  business  only  a  few 
years,  till  I  gain  so  much,  and  then  I  'm  going 
to  serve  the  Lord  more  systematically  and 
zealously."  My  brother,  what  is  to  hinder 
you  from  serving  the  Lord  systematically  and 
earnestly  in  your  business  ?  "Why  have  to  go 
out  of  it,  in  order  to  be  a  consistent  Christian  ? 
Why  not  sanctify  your  business  by  erecting  an 
altar  in  your  counting-room?  Your  style  of 
speech  suggests  that  your  business  has  some 
crooked  ways  in  it  that  would  not  bear  inspec- 
tion. If  this  be  so,  I  the  more  earnestly  appeal 
to  you  to  cast  out  the  demon  from  your  store 
and  let  the  Lord  Jesus,  your  Lord  Jesus,  ever 
be  by  your  side,  at  your  ledger,  behind  your 
counter,  in  conference  with  your  customer,  so 
that  you  may  exercise  yourself  unto  godliness 
in  all  your  doings. 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

THE    SOUL'S    EXERCISE  :      IN 
CHRISTIAN    SOCIETY. 

HAVE  endeavored  to  show  that 
the  society  of  believers  is  the 
fresh  air  to^  a  behever's  piety,  purify- 
ing his  Christ-life  from  the  false  ad- 
ditions which  accrue  either  from  a 
morbid  isolation  on  the  one  hand,  or  from 
worldly  intimacies  on  the  other.  My  pur- 
pose now  is  to  show  that  this  society  of  be- 
lievers is  one  of  the  appropriate  spheres  in 
which  he  is  to  exercise  himself  unto  godliness. 
He  is  not  only  to  be  a  recipient  of  good  by 
these  relations,  but  to  be  also  a  giver  of  good. 
And  by  the  society  of  believers  I  do  not 
mean  an  alliance  with  believers  in  acts  of 


132  THE   HEALTHY   CHllISTIAN. 

worship,  a  formal  connection  in  what  are 
known  as  cliiircli  relations,  but  a  social  life 
with  those  who  have  the  same  hope,  the  same 
salvation,  the  same  Christ.  The  necessity  of 
forming  such  a  relationship,  the  breaking  up 
of  many  common  habits  which  it  implies,  the 
complete  abjuring  of  a  trifling  world,  the  wil- 
lingness to  be  considered  peculiar,  and  con- 
trasted by  that  world — all  these  points  we 
have  already  considered.  It  remains  for  us 
now  only  to  consider  the  forms  in  which  a 
Christian  may  exercise  his  graces  in  such  a 
godly  society  thus  constituted. 

1.  My  first  observation  has  respect  to  con- 
versation, I  use  the  word  in  its  modern 
sense,  for  verbal  intercourse.  God  has  en- 
dowed us  with  speech  as  the  medium  of  com- 
munion and  communication  between  soul  and 
soul.  By  it  the  observation,  logic  and  im- 
agery of  the  mind  are  projected  into  a  condi- 
tion that  can  be  grasped  and  used  by  another. 
Ideas  that  otherwise  would  be  vague  and 
formless,  are  defined  by  this  high  faculty  of 
man,  and  by  their  very  definition  give  birth 
to  new  ideas,  wliich  are  formative  in  their 


THE   SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  133 

turn,  and  so  tlirougli  language  the  mind  grows 
in  knowledge  and  wisdom.  The  beasts  that 
are  intended  to  remain  stationary  in  their 
mdimental  knowledge,  creatures  of  an  instinct 
that  never  grows,  need  httle  language;  but 
man,  born  to  have  dominion  over  the  beasts 
and  with  capacity  to  partake  of  the  divine, 
possesses  alone  of  earth's  inhabitants  this 
grand  endowment  by  which  his  progress  may 
be  insured,  and  his  alliance  with  supernal 
beings  is  established.  The  prostitution  of 
such  a  faculty  to  low  and  trifling  ends  is  a 
fearful  abuse  of  the  divine  grace  and  purpose. 
It  is  not  only  where  lying  and  slander  defile 
the  tongue  that  speech  is  degraded,  it  is  not 
only  where  a  wicked  heart  makes  the  tongue 
the  instrument  of  crime,  but  it  is  also  where 
this  noble  faculty  becomes  the  agent  of  what 
the  apostle  has  called  "foolish  talking."  Enter 
any  ball-room,  pass  from  group  to  group,  and 
note  the  conversation  that  is  common  to  all. 
Is  the  twittering  of  swallows  more  vacant? 
Petty  scandal,  commonplace  compliments, 
threadbare  wit — these  are  the  loftiest  terms 
we  can  use  to  designate  the  bubbles  of  prattle 


134  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

to  which  men  and  women  degrade  speech  in 
their  principal  social  reunions,  for  which  they 
make  their  especial  preparations.  In  this 
style  of  school  the  mass  of  what  is  most 
whimsically  called  "refined  society"  obtains 
its  education,  and  so  this  senseless  chatter 
becomes  one  of  the  characteristics  of  "refined 
society."  Any  proposition  to  elevate  the  tone 
of  conversation  is  at  once  hailed  as  an  auda- 
cious attempt  to  encroach  upon  the  preroga- 
tive of  fashion,  and  a  desire  to  make  every- 
thing sombre  and  dull.  The  lazy  dawdle  of 
the  drawdng-room  magnifies  every  effort  to 
convert  it  into  something  sensible  as  a  presen- 
tation of  the  higher  mathematics,  or  Hebrew 
roots.  People  forget  that  it  is  just  as  easy 
to  talk  sense  as  nonsense,  if  they  will  only 
form  the  habit.  Sense  does  not  mean  pro- 
found study.  Sense  may  be  very  simple.  A 
peasant  can  talk  sense.  And  a  Christian 
ought  to. 

If  we  leave  the  ball-room  and  follow  the 
ordinary  social  visitor  from  house  to  house, 
we  find  no  higher  standard  of  colloquy  in 
general  use.     Dreary  commonplaces  or  un- 


THE   SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  135 

wliolesome  gossip  meets  us  everywhere.  If 
we  take  to  the  street,  we  find  a  shrill  treble 
of  laces  and  ribbons,  and  a  running  base  of 
dollars  and  dividends,  as  the  almost  universal 
music  of  conversational  life. 

Now,  in  dkect  opposition  to  all  this,  the 
behever  is  to  use  this  large  field  of  opportu- 
nity for  the  exercise  of  his  religious  acquire- 
ments. Not  that  each  conversation  of  a  Chris- 
tian is  to  be  a  sermon,  or  that  he  is  never 
to  talk  without  a  testimony  direct  for  Christ. 
Such  a  method  would  defeat  its  own  end. 
But  he  is  to  be  so  full  of  the  great  fact  of 
Christ's  redeeming  love,  that  he  will  naturally 
and  easily  turn  anything  in  conversation  to 
the  advantage  of  the  grand  subject.  More- 
over, his  whole  manner  of  treating  all  other 
subjects  will  be  that  of  a  Christian,  so  that 
he  will  show  his  believing  soul  even  when  he 
makes  no  verbal  allusion  to  the  truths  of  reve- 
lation. He  will  avoid  words  and  phrases, 
very  common  in  the  world  which  smack  of 
profanity  or  infidehty,  and  will  not  allow  him- 
self for  a  moment  to  descend  to  tattle  or  twad- 
dle.     He   can  be  humorous  without  l^eing 


136  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

either  low  or  flat,  preserving  a  religion  and 
dignity  even  in  liis  pleasantry. 

If  a  soul  is  full  of  Christ's  love,  this  high 
character  of  speech  will  not  be  a  difficult  task 
or  exhibit  the  appearance  of  stiffness,  but 
will  be  the  natural  effluence  of  its  affections. 
It  does  not  banish  fun,  but  folly.  It  does 
not  seek  solemnity,  but  solidity. 

At  times,  indeed,  the  Christian  will  be  sol- 
emn in  his  speech.  "Where  the  right  ojopor- 
tunity  offers  he  will,  remembering  his  high 
commission  of  God,  speak  to  his  friend  or 
companion  of  the  things  of  eternity.  This 
responsibility  is  but  Httle  understood,  or,  at 
least,  but  httle  accepted  among  the  majority 
of  Christians.  It  should  occupy  a  large  part 
of  their  thoughts,  not  as  an  unwelcome  and 
inconvenient  load,  but  as  a  glad  duty  for 
Christ's  sake.  It  is  a  sad  reflection  that  so 
few  of  Christ's  people  are  known  by  their 
conversation,  and  that  thus  the  influence  of 
the  church  is  curtailed,  and  strange  inferences 
are  drawn  by  the  world  with  regard  to  the 
value  of  the  gospel.  A  Christian  who  thus 
refuses  to  testify  for  Christ  is  really  testifying 


THE   SOUL'S  EXERCISE.  137 

against  him.  Many  Christians  have  dated 
their  first  true  rapture  in  their  rehgious  expe- 
riences from  the  time  when  they  dared  to 
open  their  mouths  boldly  for  the  Lord  in 
conversation  with  their  friends.  The  breach 
in  the  wall  of  reserve  has  proved  a  road  for 
heavenly  delights  to  enter  in. 

But  not  only  in  speech  with  the  unregen- 
erate,  but  in  conversation  with  converted  souls 
a  great  revolution  should  be  inaugurated  among 
us.  Why  should  not  Christ's  people,  when 
they  meet  together,  speak  of  him?  Why 
should  their  dear  Saviour  be  unmentioned,  as 
if  he  were  dead,  or  as  if  his  name  had  an  ill 
omen  in  its  use?  Why  should  not  conver- 
sation among  Christians  naturally  gravitate 
toward  the  great  themes  of  salvation.  Ke- 
member  the  suggestive  passage  in  the  prophet 
Malachi,  "They  that  feared  the  Lord  spake 
often  one  to  another,  and  the  Lord  hearkened 
and  heard  it,  and  a  book  of  remembrance  was 
written  before  him  for  them  that  feared  tlie 
Lord,  and  that  thought  upon  liis  name.  And 
they  shall  be  mine,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
in  that  day  when  I  make  up  my  jewels ;  und 

>^0f  XHB   ^ 


138  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

I  will  spare  them,  as  a  man  sparetli  his  own 
son  that  serve th  him."  By  such  frequent  con- 
versation, on  divine  things,  they  are  kept  fresh 
and  efficient  in  the  soul,  and  one  of  the  best 
securities  against  worldHness  is  estabhshed. 
The  exercise  is  "unto  godliness."  In  order 
to  such  a  habit  we  must  have  in  the  first 
place  a  deeper  and  more  living  interest  in 
divine  things,  for  out  of  the  abundance  of 
the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh;  and  then  we 
must  have  a  more  familiar  acquaintance  with 
God's  word,  so  that  its  texts  should  ever  rise 
in  our  minds  as  the  subjects  of  our  remark. 
The  lack  of  these  two  qualifications  probably 
lies  back  of  our  failure  in  this  important  de- 
partment of  spiritual  exercise,  and  our  reform 
must  begin  there.  As  in  every  characteristic 
action  of  a  true  Christianity,  so  here  we  see 
that  a  real  separation  from  the  world,  a  clear 
and  seen  distinction,  is  the  will  of  God  con- 
cerning us. 

*  2.  The  second  method  in  which  our  Chris- 
tian life  should  exercise  itself  in  society  is  in 
mutual  service.  It  was  said  of  Dorcas,  she 
was  "full  of  good  works."     Our  social  life 


THE    SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  139 

might  be  almost  made  up  of  this  holy  mate- 
rial. Help  is  wanted  by  everybody  every 
day  in  some  form,  help  for  body  and  help  for 
soul.  There  are  httle  disappointments  to  be 
assuaged,  httle  obstacles  to  be  cleared  away, 
little  provocations  to  be  soothed  down,  little 
sorrows  to  be  comforted,  httle  hardships  to  be 
alleviated,  besides  the  great  evils  to  which  we 
are  all  exposed ;  and  the  Christian  soul  ought 
to  be  ever-ready  and  watching  to  minister  to 
these  constantly-recurring  wants  of  our  fel- 
lows. It  is  not  only  the  actual  relief  in  ex- 
ternal matters  that  is  brought  about  by  such 
a  healthy  system  of  "bearing  one  another's 
burdens,"  but  there  is  a  higher  ministry  to  the 
sympathies  of  the  soul.  The  magnetism  of 
Christian  friendship  renews  the  desponding 
or  disordered  heart,  and  our  oneness  in  Christ 
is  made  manifest.  Such  a  manifestation  is 
a  heavenly  balm,  communicating  peace  and 
strength.  The  adroitness  of  a  Christian  per- 
ception will  discover  the  secret  springs  of  bless- 
ing, and  lead  out  their  refreshing  streams.  It 
is  as  a  society  founded  on  these  principles  of 
sympathy  and  active  love  that  the  Scriptures 


140         THE   HEALTHY  CHRISTIAN. 

portray  the  cliurcli  of  Jesus,  forming  so  marked 
a  contrast  with  the  world,  where  seK-display 
and  self-aggrandizement  assume  perhaps  a 
cloak  of  courtesy  in  the  intercourse  of  society, 
but  where,  notwithstanding,  each  soul  is  isola- 
ted and,  according  to  the  paradoxical  prov- 
erb, even  charity  is  cold. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  social  na- 
ture and  requirements  of  man  are  better  met 
and  satisfied  by  an  intercouse  that  has  mu- 
tual reUef  and  benefit  as  one  of  its  constitu- 
ent elements,  than  by  one  which  has  only  the 
connections  of  outward  habit  or  fashion  as 
its  essential  power.  It  is  a  mistake  to  sup- 
pose that  idleness  or  vacuity  of  mind  and 
heart  has  anything  restful  in  it;  and  hence 
the  pleasures  of  worldly  society,  far  from  sat- 
isfying, leave  a  sense  of  dreariness  and  lone- 
liness and  weariness  upon  the  spirit.  It  is 
a  species  of  intoxication,  attractive,  even  fas- 
cinating, for  a  moment,  but  leaving  its  sting 
behind.  It  is  only  where  the  affections  have 
instituted  a  ministry,  a  permanence  of  mutual 
service,  that  the  soul  reaUy  rests  and  is  re- 
freshed.    And  such  a  permanent  institution 


THE   SOUL'S  EXERCISE.  141 

we  will  vainly  look  for  outside  tlie  influences 
of  God's  Word  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is 
not  a  native  growth  from  man's  selfish  nature. 
It  should  be  the  glory  of  the  church  of  Christ 
to  exhibit  tliis  healthy  action  of  a  ceaseless 
sympathy  between  its  members,  and  in  such 
activities  the  Christian  should,  as  we  have 
seen,  find  the  very  atmosphere  he  breathes. 

It  is  a  matter  of  deep  concern  that  we  find 
Christ's  church  so  little  fulfiUing  the  designs 
of  its  Lord.  Just  as  the  ancient  Jews  let  a 
famihar  intercourse  with  the  idolatrous  na- 
tions steal  away  their  hearts  from  God,  and 
so,  under  the  claims  of  business  or  falsely- 
estabhshed  relationships,  let  slip  one  by  one 
the  distinctive  features  of  their  holy  state, 
until  the  severest  chastisements  were  neces- 
sary to  purge  them  of  their  corruption  and 
bring  them  back  to  God;  so  the  church  of 
Jesus  now  is,  by  its  false  partnerships  with 
an  unbelieving  world,  giving  up  the  divine 
methods  of  its  true  life,  and  yielding  itself  to 
the  pernicious,  though  often  plausible,  habits 
of  a  Christless  society,  using  the  arguments 
and  reaching  the  conclusions  w^hich  are  for- 


142  THE   HEALTHY   CHEISTIAN. 

eign  to  the  revelation  of  God,  and  directly 
antagonistic  to  all  growth  in  grace.  The  de- 
ceitful allurements  of  riches,  the  attractions 
of  position,  the  taste  for  low  pleasure  are 
more  potent  than  the  commands  of  God,  the 
consistency  of  Christ's  truth,  the  beauty  of 
holiness  and  the  raptures  of  divine  commun- 
ion. Can  we  see  the  sad  repetition  of  Israel's 
sin  without  shuddering  in  expectation  of  Is- 
rael's fearful  chastisement  ?  Is  God  going  to 
leave  his  people  to  corrupt  themselves  ?  "Will 
he  not  vindicate  his  truth,  while  he  seeks 
their  recoveiy  ? 

Some  are  ready  to  say  that  this  is  a  puri- 
tanic view  of  things,  and  by  that  they  would 
mean  that  we  are  too  stern  in  our  judgment, 
and  too  strict  in  our  requirements.  But  to 
the  law  and  to  the  testimony !  Let  them  de- 
cide the  question  for  us.  "  Be  ye  holy  as  I 
am  holy,"  is  the  great  command  of  God  to 
you  and  me,  and  the  way  to  obey  it  is  in 
Jesus  Christ  by  a  life  of  faith  and  faith's 
ready  obedience.  Does  the  prevailing  form 
of  Christian  society  conform  to  this  standard  ? 
Is  not  the  ordinary  Christian  life  of  to-day  a 


THE    SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  143 

round  of  worldliness  with  a  dasli  of  legalistic 
religion  thrown  in  to  satisfy  conscience  ?  Are 
not  many  Christians  as  mad  after  money  and 
display  as  the  ungodly  ? 

I  speak  with  emphasis  of  this  sad  condi- 
tion of  the  church,  because  reform  here  must 
really  be  the  basis  of  all  change  for  the  better. 
Of  what  use  is  anything  else  to  a  body,  if 
it  breathe  foul  air?  Neither  food  nor  exer- 
cise can  save  it.  fi^om  disease,  if  it  is  inhaling 
poison  into  the  lungs.  And  if  a  believer 
remain  in  full  communion  with  the  world,  he 
has  no  power  to  exercise  himself  healthfully. 
The  sphere  of  healthy  exercise  is  away  from 
him.  Give  him  a  social  Ufe  among  God's 
people,  and  then  he  can  exercise  his  Chris- 
tian energies  to  his  increase  in  godliness ;  and 
then  too  the  Word  of  God  will  nourish  him 
aright  and  Christ  be  developed  in  his  soul. 
The  great  want  of  the  church  is,  therefore, 
separation  from  the  world.  Every  healthy 
demand  of  recreation  or  amusement  can  be 
found  in  the  Christian  society  to  which  God's 
word  directs  us,  while  the  actions  of  such  a 
society  in  works  of  mutual  comfort,  encour- 


144  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

agement,  and  lielp  will  prove  themselves  a 
source  of  permanent  pleasure,  which  has  no 
counterpart  in  the  activities  of  a  worldly  soci- 
ety. The  unsatisfying  character  of  worldly 
society  is  keenly  and  sadly  felt  when  its 
ephemeral  excitement  is  over.  In  spite  of  our 
efforts  to  the  contrary,  it  proves  hollow  and 
mocking.  Momentary  triumphs  and  ultimate 
defeat  of  self  mark  the  history  of  the  soul 
that  seeks  its  pleasure  in  anything  short  of 
the  divine;  but  the  soul  that  seeks  its  pleas- 
ure in  God  and  his  people,  that  finds  its  de- 
light in  giving  and  receiving  the  hving  sym- 
pathy of  truth  and  holiness,  occupies  a  sphere 
of  perennial  sunshine.  God  himself  is  the 
minister  of  its  pleasures,  and  he  never  fails. 
Feverish  excitement  is  exchanged  for  calm 
repose,  in  accordance  with  the  promise, "  Thou 
wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is- 
stayed  on  thee."  As  the  world  does  not  give 
the  happiness,  so  the  world  cannot  take  it 
away.  It  is  out  of  its  reach.  The  chains  of 
bondage  to  the  world  are  broken,  and  the 
soul  is  free.  The  unbeliever,  as  his  name 
impUes,  does  not  believe  that  such  a  life  of 


THE    SOUL'S   EXERCISE.  145 

happiness  exists,  and  with  him  I  do  not  now 
attempt  to  argue ;  but  you,  my  believing  friend, 
hnoiv  that  this  truly  happy  life  is  within  your 
reach,  and  you  ought  to  know  that  your  con- 
formity to  the  world  is  your  only  hinderance 
to  its  enjoyment.  Is  it  in  yain  that  I  bid  you 
listen  to  your  dear  Saviour,  saying,  "  I  have 
chosen  you  out  of  the  world;"  "I  have  chosen 
you  that  ye  should  go  and  bring  forth  fruit ;" 
and  again,  through  his  apostle,  "  Walk  as  chil- 
dren of  light;  "have  no  fellowship  with  the 
unfruitful  works  of  darkness"?  Is  it  in  vain 
that  Christ's  own  people  are  urged  to  break 
the  alUance  with  a  world  that  hates  Christ? 
I  beseech  you  not  to  let  mere  consequences 
come  into  consideration,  when  the  Saviour  s 
command  is  so  explicit  and  reiterated.  Exer- 
cise yourselves  unto  •  godliness  by  a  speech 
trained  in  Christian  conversation,  and  by  social 
intimacies  that  shall  further  your  spiritual 
health,  and  so  supply  your  spiritual  joy.  Cast 
off,  as  Satan's  chains,  the  false  excuses  about 
the  needs  of  youth  and  the  requirements  of 
recreation  and  the  demands  of  fashion,  and 
trust  Jesus  and  Jesus  only,  as  you  obey  his 

Healthy  Christian.  10 


146 


THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 


commands,  letting  consequences  take  care  of 
themselves.  Then  yours  will  be  a  symmetrical 
Christ-Hfe,  and  the  spiritual  diseases  which 
disfigure  and  desolate  the  church  of  Christ 
will  leave  you  to  stand  before  God  his  noblest 
work,  a  healthy  Christian, 


CHAPTEE   X. 


THE  SOUL'S  exercise:    in  per- 
sonal  CULTURE. 

^HE  last  sphere  for  the  exercise 
of  our  Christian  hfe,  to  which  I 
would  refer,  is  that  of  direct  personal 
culture.  We  have  considered  the  op- 
portunities offered  in  the  family,  in 
our  church  relations,  in  our  business,  and  in 
our  social  connections.  We  now  come  to  the 
man  himself.  There  is  a  direct  work  for  him- 
self, as  wxU  as  an  indirect  work  through  his 
relation  to  others.  While  man  is  made  for 
others,  and  the  great  part  of  his  life  must  be 
shaped  amid  associational  forces,  and  while 
the  Christian's  life  is  no  exception  to  the  rule 
but  must  be  very  largely  intermingled  with 
the  lives  of  others,  and  in  this  intermuigling 


148  THE    HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

lie  finds  the  elements  of  a  successful  and 
healthy  growth,  still  there  must  be  times  of 
separation  from  the  great  without,  a  shutting 
up  of  the  soul  to  its  own  converse,  or  rather  a 
withdrawing  to  be  with  God  alone. 

The  active,  nervous  life  which  we  lead  in 
this  land  and  age  has  proved  inimical  to  this 
phase  of  Christian  experience.  The  Church 
of  Christ  in  our  country  is  an  active,  bustling 
church,  but  it  cannot  be  called  a  meditative 
church ;  and  so  personal  Christian  experience 
is  more  apt  to  assume  the  energetic  than  the 
contemplative  form.  I  speak  of  a  ripe  and 
healthy  experience. 

We  escape  some  great  evils,  it  is  true,  by 
this  style  of  development,  but  w^e  also  lose 
very  great  advantages.  The  evils  we  escape 
are  those  of  morbid  self-inspection,  which  are 
the  spiritual  diseases  of  honest  monasteries 
and  nunneries ;  the  vain  attempt  incessantly 
to  analyze  our  own  hearts  and  know  them, 
which  ends  either  in  conceit  or  despair ;  the 
critical  examination  of  every  motive  and 
thought ;  the  dissection  and  measurement  of 
every  sin  and  every  grace  in  us — all  which  is 


THE   SOUL'S   EXEKCISE.  149 

meddling  with  the  incomprehensible,  a  very 
vain,  puzzling,  and  calamitous  business.  These 
are  great  eyils,  indeed,  which  the  driving, 
Jehu-like  Christian  is  not  Hable  to  suffer  from ; 
but  there  are  advantages  in  temporary  isola- 
tion, whose  loss  he  ought  not  to  endure  com- 
posedly. A  meditative  Christian  need  not  be 
a  seH-scrutinizing  Christian.  He  may  look  at 
his  life  historically,  without  dissecting  his  own 
heart.  The  latter  work  is  God's  only.  "  Search 
me,  O  God,"  is  the  psalmist's  cry.  He  did 
not  Imow  how  to  search  himself.  But  while 
w^e  commit  this  search  of  our  hearts  to  God, 
our  past  lives  lie  before  us  as  an  historic  fact, 
which  we  can  safely  contemplate,  as  we  would 
a  landscape  or  a  numerical  account.  We 
ought  to  make  a  balance-sheet  from  time  to 
time  in  our  religious  hfe,  as  we  do  in  our  pecu- 
niary concerns.  Have  I  treated  my  fellow- 
men  as  a  Christian  ought  to,  last  week,  or  last 
month?  Have  I  been  searching  God's  truth 
with  more  eagerness  ?  Have  I  been  an  exam- 
ple to  my  family  and  friends  ?  Have  I  sought 
the  welfare  of  others?  Have  I  been  regular 
in  my  use  of  the  means  of  growth  which  God 


150         THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

has  provided  ?  Questions  like  these  have 
nothing  sickly  in  them.  They  are  sound,  hon- 
est questions,  to  be  answered  according  to 
historic  fact — very  different  questions  from 
such  as  these  :  "  Was  my  motive  ^perfectly  pure 
when  I  gave  that  dollar  to  the  poor  man? 
Did  I  sufficiently  weigh  the  words  of  my 
prayer  last  evening?  Is  my  heart  ready  to 
make  every  sacrifice  for  Christ?"  It  is  this 
latter  style  of  questions  whose  answer  involves 
the  analysis  of  a  labyrinth,  which  makes  mel- 
ancholy and  very  useless  Christians.  Books 
that  encourage  such  an  unscriptural  self-dis- 
section ought  to  be  burned.  But  the  contem- 
plation of  our  past  life,  its  outline  of  hill  and 
valley,  the  way  God's  mercy  has  led  us,  and 
our  own  failures  and  progress^this  is  an  easy 
and  wholesome  duty.  The  whole  Bible  urges 
us  to  it.  "  See  what  I  have  done  for  you,  and 
see  how  little  you  have  used  your  advantages," 
is  the  virtual  cry  of  God  to  his  people  all 
through  the  history  of  his  church.  There  is 
not  one  of  us  who  has  not  a  history  replete 
with  wonders  of  Divine  grace.  By  looking 
back  carefully  we  can  see  how  God  has  led  us 


THE   SOUL'S  EXEECISE.  151 

by  ways  we  knew  not ;  how  trial  has  borne  its 
peaceable  fraits  of  righteousness ;  how  dangers 
have  been  thwarted  and  thrust  aside  by  the 
interposition  of  providential  trifles;  how  our 
own  errors  have  brought  us  injury,  and  yet 
how  God  has  ever  overruled  that  injury  for 
our  good ;  how,  in  short,  our  whole  life  has 
been  a  constant  discipline  of  an  affectionate 
Heavenly  Father.  Now,  this  profiting  view 
cannot  be  enjoyed  while  in  the  push  and  crowd 
of  busy  life.  It  demands  retirement  and  tune. 
The  mind  must  be  quiet,  so  that  the  memory 
can  act  soberly  and  systematically.  Yet  very 
few  Christians  apparently  feel  the  importance 
of  this  tranquil  hour  of  meditation.  Perhaps 
they  consider  it  a  luxury  they  can  forego, 
rather  than  a  necessity  they  must  seize.  They 
hear  David  say,  "I  will  meditate  of  all  thy 
work,"  Ps.  77 :  12  ;  and  again,  "  I  meditate  on 
all  thy  works ;  and  muse  on  the  work  of  thy 
hands,"  Ps.  143 : 5  ;  and  they  think  that  was 
well  for  David,  so  eminent  a  saint,  but  they, 
alas!  are  too  much  driven  in  Hfe  for  such  a 
high  enjoyment.  Perhaps,  however,  they  deem 
it  neither  necessity  nor  luxury,  indeed  think 


152  THE- HEALTHY   CHEISTIAN. 

nothing  about  it,  but  carelessly  lose  the  benefits 
of  this  means  of  grace. 

Another  subject  of  meditation  is  God's  re- 
vealed word.  The  psalmist  is  full  of  this. 
"In  God's  law  doth  he  meditate  day  an(J 
night"  (Ps.  1 :2) — this  is  in  his  description  oj 
a  godly  man.  "  I  will  meditate  in  thy  pre- 
cepts and  have  respect  unto  thy  ways;"  "My 
hands  also  I  will  lift  up  unto  thy  command- 
ments, which  I  have  loved,  and  I  will  meditate 
in  thy  statutes;"  "Mine  eyes  prevent  the 
night  watches,  that  I  might  meditate  in  thy 
word ;"  "I  love  thy  law — it  is  my  meditation 
all  the  day ;"  "  Thy  testimonies  are  my  medi- 
tation." These  are  some  of  the  utterances  of 
the  godly  king  himself,  and  here  we  see  the 
secret  of  his  maintaining  his  integrity  amid 
the  fearful  temptations  of  wealth  and  absolute 
power.  There  is  infinite  food  for  thought  in 
the  Bible.  We  must  do  more  than  read  the 
Bible.  A  Christian  should  be  like  the  clean 
beasts  of  the  law,  and  spend  times  of  rest 
in  chewing  the  cud.  The  word  read  should 
be  brought  up  by  memory  for  new  and  more 
complete  digestion,  and  only  in  this  process 


THE   SOUL'S   EXliRCISE.  153 

can  God's  word  be  said  to  be  known.  This, 
it;  will  be  marked,  is  a  different  thing  from 
studying  the  Scriptures,  to  which  an  allusion 
has  been  made  under  another  head.  This  is 
the  revolving  of  the  studied  word  in  our 
thoughts,  so  as  to  fit  it  to  our  own  cases  and 
apply  it  to  our  own  Uves.  Study mg  the  Word 
implies  search  with  every  help  of  commentary, 
encyclopaedia,  dictionary,  and  Scripture  com- 
parison that  can  be  obtained ;  but  meditating 
on  the  Word  is  the  use  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
"Word  thus  gained  in  all  its  relations  to  our- 
selves. This  meditation  on  the  Word  natu- 
rally combines  with  meditation  on  our  past 
lives,  and  thus  adjustment  and  improvement 
are  suggested.  One  of  the  grandest  forms  of 
this  meditation  on  the  Word  is  found  in  the 
review  of  Christ's  marvellous  work  for  us.  To 
follow  the  Son  of  God  from  heaven  to  earth, 
to  see  him  a  babe  at  the  inn-stable  of  Bethle- 
hem, a  youth  at  Nazareth,  a  teacher,  wonder- 
worker, and  lover  of  souls  in  Gahlee  and 
Judea,  to  witness  his  agouy  in  the  Garden  and 
on  the  Cross,  to  behold  him  bursting  the  bars 
of  the  grave,  and  to  look  after  his  receding 


154  THE   HEALTHY    CHRISTIAN. 

figure  in  the  clouds  over  Olivet,  going  to  pre- 
pare a  place  for  us — these  are  enjoyments  of 
the  meditative  hour  which  impress  their  lasting 
lessons  on  the  heart  and  life.  There,  too,  we 
ponder  on  the  love  that  wrought  all  this,  the 
yearning  love  of  Jesus  for  his  own  ransomed 
ones ;  and  there,  in  an  emphatic  manner,  do  we 
talk  with  Him,  really  present  to  our  conscious- 
ness. This  talking  with  Jesus  is  prayer — is 
the  confiding  speech  of  a  child  and  not  the 
cry  of  a  stranger.  It  is  not  a  shriek  for  help, 
but  a  gentle  use  of  a  perpetual  help  afforded 
in  our  Lord.  Prayer  is  too  often  practically 
considered  as  merely  an  appeal  to  mercy,  and 
so  we  who  are  Christ's  are  dishonoring  him  by 
constantly  doing  over  our  first  works.  If  we 
are  in  Christ,  his  mercy  is  vouchsafed  to  us — 
we  are  already  enveloped  in  his  grace.  Its 
blessed  provisions  are  secured  to  us  by  the 
blood  of  the  covenant.  It  is  true  that  all  we 
receive  is  based  on  his  wondrous  mercy,  but 
the  prayer  of  a  believer  should  not  be  merely 
the  cry  for  mercy,  but  a  child's  unbosoming  to 
a  Father.  It  is  a  holy  communion  with  the 
dearest  of  friends,  a  putting  out  of  the  hand 


THE   SOUL'S   EXEKCISE.  155 

to  receive  his  divine  gifts,  the  very  luxury  of 
dependence  upon  his  bountiful  love.  It  is 
painful  to  see  how  some  Christians  take  the 
command  to  "pray  without  ceasing"  to  be  an 
order  from  heaven  to  cry  out  continually, 
"  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us !" — a  very  proper 
cry  for  the  inquirer,  the  convicted  soul,  the 
seeking  sinner,  but  as  utterly  out  of  place  for 
the  chief  prayer  of  the  behever  as  would  have 
been  the  cry,  "  Make  me  as  one  of  thy  hked 
servants,"  on  the  part  of  the  prodigal,  after  he 
had  been  welcomed  and  received  as  a  dear 
son  into  his  father's  house.  If  our  experiences 
lead  us  to  use  only  the  cry  for  mercy,  it  proves 
a  very  low  view  of  our  privileges  and  a  very 
low  condition  of  our  piety.  False  churches 
have  encouraged  this  method  of  keeping  back 
the  believer  in  everlasting  babyhood,  by  which 
system  priestcraft  has  attained  its  earthly 
ends.  We  are,  of  course,  always  to  ask  for- 
giveness for  our  daily  errors,  but  it  is  to  be  as 
a  child  says  to  his  father,  "  Father,  forgive  me 
that  fault,"  not  as  an  alien  coming  now  for  the 
first  to  receive  pardon  for  a  sinful  soul.  The 
whole  wretched  figment  of  penance  is   con- 


156  THE  HEALTHY   CHPtlSTIAN. 

structed  on  tliis  false  principle,  ignoring  Christ's 
atonement  once  for  all,  and  making,  after 
every  sad  lapse  of  a  believer,  a  new  entrance 
into  grace  necessary.  Superficial  observers 
may  think  this  is  laying  a  proper  emphasis  on 
sin,  but  it  is  just  the  reverse  :  it  is  making  sin 
a  matter  of  so  little  moment  that  a  human 
regimen  can  cure  it,  while  at  the  same  time  it 
belittles  God's  grace,  which,  if  received  into 
the  soul,  is  an  enemy  to  sin  and  takes  prece- 
dence there  before  the  eye  of  God.  God's 
grace  in  the  heart  is  a  principle  which  enables 
the  believer  to  contend  against  sin,  and  which 
is  both  encouragement  and  pledge  of  his  suc- 
cess ;  and  to  make  a  behever  begin  anew,  as  a 
convicted  sinner,  to  cry  for  mercy,  is  to  shut 
him  out  from  that  gracious  advantage  and  fill 
him  with  despair.  Let  us  put  prayer  where 
Jesus  puts  it.  It  begins  with  "Our  Father." 
The  rest  all  flows  from  that.  When  praj^er  is 
thus  viewed,  hfted  up  from  the  low  position  it 
holds  in  so  many  minds,  and  made  a  trans- 
porting communion  with  God,  then  the  com- 
mand to  pray  without  ceasing  is  equivalent  to 
a  divine  authorization  to  walk  with  God  all 


THE  SOUL'S  EXERCISE.  157 

the  time  and  to  enjoy  a  heavenly  happiness  in 
the  midst  of  all  om:  earthly  vicissitudes.  The 
command  shows  that  we  can  carry  the  prayer- 
ful spirit  with  us  in  all  our  business  of  life,  but 
stiU  there  must  be  opportunities  secured  from 
life's  business,  where  the  wliole  attention  of  the 
soul  may  be  given  to  this  sublime  exercise. 
The  laws  of  our  spiritual  nature  demand  this, 
as  well  as  the  command  of  our  Saviour  con- 
cerning doset  prayer.  "We  cannot  trust  our 
souls  for  any  spiritual  exercise  in  its  full  force 
while  the  mind  is  absorbed  in  any  external 
business.  The  soul  that  thinks  it  can  catch 
its  food  as  it  goes  wiU  grow  lean.  There  is 
such  a  thing  as  cultivating  everybody's  garden 
but  our  own. 

Daniel's  "three  times  a  day"  and  David's 
"seven  times  a  day"  were  stated  periods  of 
retirement  for  prayer  and  communion  with 
God  of  men  who  were  overwhelmed  with  the 
affairs  of  state,  fuUy  as  busy  as  the  busiest 
man  in  any  commercial  city.  There  these 
holy  men  gained  the  beauty  of  their  spiritual 
character.  When  prayer  is  regarded  in  this 
its  high  and  true  character,  there  can  be  no 


158  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

formality,  no  legalistic  dragging  in  the  exer- 
cise. 

One  other  private  exercise  of  the  Christian 
life  I  wish  to  mention,  which,  however,  has  a 
public  side.  I  refer  to  the  use  of  the  Lord's. 
Supper.  The  communion  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per is  not  the  communion  of  saints,  but  the 
communion  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 
We  do  meet  together  and  hold  communion 
with  one  another  at  the  same  time,  but  the 
essence  of  the  exercise  is  in  our  communion 
with  our  Lord,  and  hence  the  name.  The 
Lord's  Supper  is  the  central  exercise  of  Christ's 
Church.  It  is  the  emblematic  service  respect- 
ing the  central  fact  of  our  redemption.  It  is 
the  gospel  in  token.  In  the  apostolic  church, 
the  Lord's  Supper  was  partaken  of  every 
Lord's  Day.  Around  it  gathered  the  worship 
and  instruction  of  the  church.  The  apostle 
Paul,  in  his  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
sets  forth  its  prominence,  while  he  guards  it 
from  perversion.  It  has  been  the  fault  of 
many  Protestant  bodies,  in  practical  protest 
against  the  magical  character  which  the  Ro- 
man Church  gave  it,  to   diminish  the  real 


THE   SOUL'S   EXEKCISE.  159 

importance  of  tlie  Euchariist  as  a  means  of 
grace,  an  ordained  exercise  of  the  Christian 
soul.  "We  must  avoid  both  extremes.  On  one 
hand  we  must  recognize  from  Scripture  that 
there  is  no  mystic  power  in  the  elements  or 
the  minister — that  there  is  no  material  grace 
or  condemnation  in  the  service,  but  that  our 
faith  in  Jesus  and  his  word  gives  it  all  its 
value  to  us,  and  our  want  of  faith  in  Jesus 
and  his  word  gives  it  all  its  power  to  harm  us, 
as  a  holy  exercise  engaged  in  with  a  careless, 
God-defying  spirit.  Then,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  must  not  treat  it  as  a  mere  external  ser- 
vice— to  be  used  or  not,  as  the  whim  may  take 
us — of  small  account  if  we  have  the  truth  in 
our  hearts.  Our  Saviour  would  not  have  in- 
stituted it  if  it  was  of  small  importance.  Every 
thing  he  ordered  is  and  must  be  of  importance. 
He  commanded  it,  and  therefore  there  is  grace 
to  be  found  in  it  by  a  faithful  soul,  which  it 
cannot  afford  to  spare. 

The  Eucharist  is,  as  its  name  signifies,  a 
thanksgiving  service.  It  is  concentrated  praise 
for  redeeming  love,  or  rather  for  an  accom- 
plished redemption.     It  is  the  glad  reception 


160  THE   HEALTHY   CHRISTIAN. 

of  a  pledge  from  God,  and  the  kernel  of  the 
exercise  is  in  tlie  individual  soul  tlius  taking 
gladly  and  thankfully  this  pledge  from  the 
hand  of  God.  There  is  no  exercise  more 
simple,  none  more  imposing,  none  more  profit- 
able. It  is  not  a  form,  but  a  power,  and  that 
power  is  realized  through  plain  faith. 

That  a  Christian  should  stay  away  from  this 
communion  is  as  unreasonable  as  that  he 
should  abandon  prayer  or  the  study  of  the 
word.  If  he  stay  away  from  fear,  he  is  super- 
stitious. If  he  stay  away  from  worldUness, 
he  is  a  backslider.  In  both  cases  he  is  aban- 
doning a  means  of  grace,  and  disobeying  the 
express  commands  of  his  Lord.  He  should 
view  it  in  its  private  character,  in  its  relations 
to  himself,  as  a  means  of  direct  personal  cul- 
ture in  holiness,  if  he  would  rightly  estimate 
his  partaking  or  abstaining.  When  faith 
lays  hold  of  Jesus  in  his  ordinance — when,  to 
use  the  apostle's  phrase,  we  "  discern  the 
Lord's  body" — then  the  Eucharist  is  a  service 
of  glory,  a  refreshing  from  the  presence  of  the 
Lord. 

We  thus  see  that  every  behever  has  his  own 


TPIE   SOUL'S    EXERCISE.  161 

soul  to  clierish,  his  own  piety  to  cultivate,  by 
a  direct  culture,  as  well  as  by  bis  active  rela- 
tions with  others,  for  which  time  must  be  used 
at  whatever  cost,  and  for  neglect  of  which  no 
excuse  of  worldly  care  can  stand  for  a  moment 
before  the  tribunal  of  God  or  the  conscience, 
and  which,  moreover,  will  bring  its  own  pecu- 
liar rewaixl  by  a  heavenly  vantage  over  all  the 
possible  trials  of  life.  It  is  the  exercise  which 
fits  the  soul  for  all  other  exercise.  Without 
it,  every  aspect  of  the  Christian  life  will  bo 
^lisfigured. 


He.iUthy  Chiisilan.  H 


A    CLOSING    ^WORD. 

^E  have  endeavored  to  follow 
the  analogy  of  the  body,  in 
treating  of  the  soul,  and  to  show 
what  are  the  behever's  spiritual 
food,  air,  and  exercise,  by  the  right 
use  of  which  his  spiritual  life  will  be  sound 
and  vigorous,  by  which  both  the  blood-system 
and  nerve-system  of  the  soul,  the  indwelling 
of  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  will  be  main- 
tained as  against  the  powerful  adversaries  of 
the  divine  life  which  are  so  abundant  and  be- 
setting in  this  sin-smitten  earth. 

Truth  is  an  exotic  here.  It  must  be  pre- 
served by  extraordinary  measures.  The  Lord 
bids  his  people  to  be  ever  w^atchful.  The  vigi- 
lance of  faith  has  a  divine  guarantee.  It  will 
surety  accomplish  its  end.  But  where  there 
is  consent  to  the  world's  style  of  life,  the 
world's  aims  or  the  world's  system  of  ethical 


A   CLOSING   WORD.  163 

law,  there  is  the  betrayal  of  the  divine  trust, 
the  defilement  of  the  holy  place. 

Our  citizenship  is  in  heaven.  We  confess 
"we  are  strangers  and  pilgrims  on  the  earth. 
They  that  say  such  things  declare  plainly  that 
they  seek  a  country.  They  desire  a  better 
country :  that  is,  a  heavenly.  It  is  with  this 
prospect  in  view,  and  in  this  habit  of  mind 
and  heart,  that  we  are  called  upon  to  preserve 
and  nourish  what  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus  has  bestowed  upon  us. 

The  children  of  Israel  at  Sinai  received  a 
complete  law  for  their  future  habitation  in 
Palestine.  But  while  still  in  the  desert  they 
were  to  cherish  that  law,  and  use  all  that  could 
be  used  in  the  wilderness-situation.  So  are 
we,  fellow-Christians,  furnished  with  a  divine 
law  in  Christ  for  our  heavenly  home ;  but 
here,  on  our  pilgrimage,  is  that  law  of  hoh- 
ness  to  be  cherished  and  employed  to  the 
fullest  possible  anticipation  of  the  perfected 
state.  We  are  a  separated  people.  Let  us 
not  break  down  the  holy  barriers  our  God  has 
put  up. 


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